9 Point 8 Newtons
by Sour Schuyler
Summary: Ryou went to England after standing up to Miho and now she is badgering Bakura about it. He's always up for an argument, but it's getting ridiculous. What's a tomb robber to do? Bakura x Miho
1. The First Chapter, CleanUp

"I hate you," he said.

_She_ rolled her eyes, heaving in a great sigh. "Fine!"

"No; I _really _hate you." Bakura breathed so huskily, it sounded very much as if he was growling. His big, brown eyes, like those of a large dog, were glaring at her. They were like daggers thrust straight at the soul of the gamine standing across from him.

He folded his hands together neatly in front of him, resting them on Kaiba's desk, where he was currently sitting. Various curse words and other such obloquy had been freshly limned on the CEO's hitherto spotlessly clean desk, and in permanent marker, no less. Naughty Bakura.

"I said _fine!" _screeched Miho Nosaka. "What the hell more do you want from me, you… jerk!"

Bakura smiled, giving her a smile that reeked of business-like humor. "Well, for one, I want your soul," he pointed out.

"Can't have it. If you even try, Yugi'll kick your butt, AS always."

Bakura frowned, trying to remember whether his petite, starfish-headed rival was back from his vacation or not.

"And he's so much shorter than you, too," the blue-haired girl added, a smirk flaring on her face over a barely-suppressed giggle.

"Why you…" Bakura made strangling motions with his arms. He actually looked quite ridiculous whilst doing this, but try telling him that yourself and see how you like life with no arms. His mischievous classmate just stuck her tongue out at him, scrunching her eyes and nose together. The former tomb thief growled. "You're really going over the edge."

"I'm going over the edge? Me? You're the one who made my boyfriend leave me!" Miho fairly wailed. Bakura rolled his head to show how much he cared.

"Oh, boo hoo hoo. I did not. Ryou was leaving you anyway. Since he's visiting England a lot more now, he has a girlfriend over there, someone he's known since childhood. That's a lot longer than he's known you."

Miho looked confused. "So?"

Bakura smirked. "So indeed. You are such an airhead, you really don't understand, do you? Look at you! You're so possessive. You knew Ryou was shy, but you always try to make him stick up for himself and force him into situations he didn't like."

"No I didn't," she protested, although her voice was heavily laced with guilt, making it sounding more like she was pleading. And she added, just for good measure, "Tomb robber." A mean-spirited smile of triumph crossed her face, but the thief smirked.

"Then why doesn't Ryou trust you?" was all he said. His tone changed when he said this; instead of an angry sea, frothing over its edges, it was a calm, tranquil lake, precise and to the point—and most importantly, nerve-shattering. Miho's right eye began to twitch almost at once.

"He should!" she averred. "You know he should!"

"I don't think so, gamine." Bakura smiled cruelly.

"Hey, shut up! I deserve to be trusted!" Miho whined.

Bakura emphasized rolling his eyes. He knew that annoyed her. "No you don't," he retorted.

"You're just saying that because I'm a girl!"

"What if I am?" Bakura said, angrily rising to his feet. "Oooh, sexism; it's scary, right? As a cheerleader might say, 'Like, yawn.' I'm becoming _quite _tired of this conversation; I had nothing to do with Ryou and you breaking up; Ryou has a new girlfriend now, and he's in England, so just shut up and leave me be—alone." The thief grabbed his backpack and started heading out of the classroom. Miho's face went into a pout, before stretching into a deep frown after he left the room.

"Augh!" she shouted, kicking an unfortunate leg of Kaiba's desk with the toe of her sneaker. She did this, not without regret. "Ow!"

_Please review:)_


	2. The Next Day, Gym Class

_I realized today that I called Miho a gamine like, four times in the last chapter. I think. Well, she is one, by my standards. Uhm... I got a bunch of reviews, nothing I could really respond to, so I'll just start now._

Miho frowned. Having P.E. first period was bad enough, but did Tea have to stare at her as if she had three heads? "Tea... Wake up!"

"Huh?" Tea blinked, confused.

"Is there something you need to tell me?" Miho asked. Tea looked at her, utterly confused. "You were staring at me," Miho explained.

Tea turned beet red. "Oh--! No, I, I mean, I was just staring off into space..."

Miho smiled. "Were you thinking about Yami?"

Tea glared at her. "No, I was _not _thinking about Yami!"

"Aw, just 'cause he's on a vacation in Egypt with Yugi and them, doesn't mean that you have to act like you don't miss him." Miho pulled her t-shirt off of her, placing on her gym uniform instead. It was gray. Their gym shorts were... bright green. Miho shook her head. As if it wasn't bad enough that they had to run track in the morning, they had to have their butts bright green! It was like a target: "HEY! LOOK AT ME! I'M A RUNNING BOOGER!"

Miho told Tea so as they exited the locker room. They laughed, then ran laps. It generally sucked, except for the moment when Miho's rival, Kaoruko, tripped and fell face-first into the dirt. She arose shrieking about a worm crawling up her nose, or something preposterous like that. Miho and Tea both chortled as they passed her by, lapping her.

Suddenly, Miho tripped, flying at least five feet before hitting the ground. "Owch!" she lamented. Kaoruko snickered as she daintily jogged past Miho. The blue-haired girl was too confused to throw a snooty look in her rival's direction, as she tried to figure out why she had tripped. Tea pointed out the obvious.

"Your shoelace is untied."

"Oh. Thanks." Miho got on one knee and quickly tied her shoe. "Okay, let's go!"

A lap later, Miho tripped in the very same spot. "What the?" she exclaimed, looking down at her sneakers immediately this time. The shoelace had come untied again.

"Doubleknot it," Tea suggested. Miho did. Another lap later, she tripped again in the same spot, her shoelace untied again.

From behind the bleachers, Bakura laughed quietly. He was always scrupulous about not being seen, and this time was no exception. Besides, magic was invisible, and the Millennium Ring was able to manipulate her shoelaces from quite a distance.

"Bakura!" Coach Karita shouted. "Get your hiney over here and JOG!"

Bakura turned, his eyes flashing angrily, but they quickly died down to a wise glimmer. "All righty then," he said, running back over to the football field that they were forced to job around tediously. It sucked. Running sucked. But making other people trip as you passed by them did _not _suck. And that was why Bakura enjoyed P.E. so much.


	3. End of Gym Class

"Get back here Bakura!" Miho scowled at him. Bakura paid her no heed, instead adjusting the volume on his headphones. The song, _White America, _blasted his eardrums to a nigh-painful level, but it was worth it to avoid the cussing out that Miho was giving him right now.

"…and that's why you're such a jerk!" she ended her lecture. She kicked some dirt at him, made a _hmph! _noise, and marched back over to her friends. Bakura just rolled his eyes and headed back to the boys' locker room with the others. Tristan gave him a disdainful look.

"You could try to be a little nicer to girls, you know," he said. Tristan was really the only person Joey had that could be considered a "friend". Then again, Tristan _did _owe him for the time Bakura had saved his hide during Duelist Kingdom, when Tristan had nearly fallen off of a tower in Pegasus's castle. But even Tristan wouldn't join him in casual conversation. The only person who would ever _dare _to do that… well, he wasn't around right now, so Bakura could do whatever he want and take whatever he desired without being nagged on.

"A typical mortal point of view," Bakura responded. Tristan opened his mouth to say something, but just then Joey threw himself on his back.

"Piggyback ride!" Joey squealed. Tristan fell straight to the ground, flat on his face. He stood up super-quick, in anime fashion.

"What didya do that for?" Tristan yelled. A few of the guys snickered. One new guy looked really confused.

"Are they gay?" he asked Bakura. Bakura looked at him out of the corner of his eye. He looked pretty non-descript; a bowl-cut, dark eyes, obviously Asian face.

"Yeah," Bakura told him. "Yes they are."

"Are they really?" Wasn't this guy leaving? "I didn't know that they'd allow those sorts of people at school."

"Oh yeah. Yeah, they do, apparently, 'cos these two dummies are still here." Bakura snorted at Joey and Tristan, which called their attention to him. (They had been wrestling on the ground in _very _awkward positions.)

"Hey! Bakura! What did you say about us!" Joey shouted.

"Yeah, fess up, 'Kura," Tristan said softly. Bakura cackled and stalked away. The new kid looked at Joey and Tristan, confused, and then jogged after Bakura.


	4. Next day, Lunch time

_trueyamigirlfriend- GOMEN GOMEN GOMEN GOMEN! I had actually writtend a note to remind me to reply to your review, but I think my sister closed it before I saved it.;;; Gomen gomen gomen GOMEN! I didn't know you would be so mad. Um, Miho knows because well, if you're talking about the Miho from the first anime series (which I am,) she's kind of… stalkerish, fangirlish. And, so, yeah. Besides, she's best friends with Tea, it was bound to come out._

(My God, how could I have posted something up that had the word "writtend" in it? Geez…)

2nd draft  
(I had to take the song lyrics out)  
Updated May 6th

It was lunchtime, that glorious period of repast and repose in the schools. It was also Joey's best subject. The fair-haired gourmand was guzzling down his food and the food of anybody else who happened to leave their seat for a moment, while Tristan leafed through a _Love Hina _manga novel. Bakura sat, not next to Tristan, but _next to _next to Tristan, to avoid looking social. Unfortunately, the new kid was sitting next to him, so it didn't really work very well.

He said his name was Gatawata-or-whatever and that he was from some prefect or another that was near Mt. Fuji. (He was actually Otagawa from Nara prefect, in fact, near the famous Hyoruji Pagoda!) The naïve character wouldn't leave Bakura alone. This didn't really have deterred the robber by itself, but Otagawa kept talking to him, too, despite Bakura's I-pod being hooked into his ear visibly. He talked about go and compared his old house-versus-his new apartment in the city, raved about how his bratty baby sister pushed him down the stairs earlier that morning, and talked about various other things.

"Who was that girl yelling at you?" Otagawa asked him finally. He nudged Bakura with his elbow, and on instinct Bakura grabbed his arm roughly, baring his teeth slightly in a wolfish manner. "Eh?"

Bakura stared at him blankly, finally letting go of his arm with a bored look on his face. "Oh… Miho. She's Nosaka Miho."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Bakura sipped his chocolate milk quietly, wondering what it would taste like if it had been adulterated with blood. "No. I'd rather I die than date her."

"Then why did you call her Miho?"

It was a very intimate thing to call somebody by their first name with no honorific. However, without proper permission, calling a person by their first name sans an honorific at the end would be considered _very _rude.

"I like being rude to her," Bakura said thusly, and that was that.

Or so he thought. "Why?" This kid was full of questions.

"She's saucy, impudent, and she won't leave me alone." Before his new 'friend' asked why, or even suggested that Miho had a _crush _on him, Bakura added, or perhaps even blurted: "It's because she thinks its my fault my cousin broke up with her."

"Oh. I see. Is it?"

"Nope. Can't say I didn't tell him that I hated her, though."

"It would've been funny if you said 'Can't say I didn't tell _her…'_"

Bakura stared at him. Otagawa shut up, but grinned unabashedly. Was this guy a moron?

"Ryou looks like a girl, though," Tristan supplied cheerfully. He turned the page of his manga. He had started it that morning and was already about half-way through it. That shows that he really hadn't been paying attention in school that morning… Too bad he'd missed an important lesson.

"Ha ha ha, maybe that's because Bakura looks like a girl and somebody told me they look alike." Otagawa grinned as Bakura growled. "Hey, hey! I jest, I swear! After all, we're friends now, right?"

Bakura's face fell. "Sure," he said apathetically, turning the volume of his music up. A song by Smashing Pumpkins was playing. It was one of Ryou's favorite songs, for some reason that Bakura could not fathom. It was, as far as Bakura could gather, about a person loving a person "inside where's it warm", but not showing it, and instead the secret crusher would "fight himself in two".

Bakura sighed in annoyance as he saw Miho pass by, giving him an evil eye. "Why won't you go away?" he snapped.

"I sit here," she said simply, "most of the time, and you don't deserve it," she said. She sat across from Joey and immediately started gossiping.

Bakura sighed. _Gee, I seem to be doing a lot of that today, _he mused angrily. _It's all that rotten girl's fault!_

Another thing that was Miho's fault was, now he had missed the end of the chorus. He replayed the song and waited patiently for it to repeat.

"Hey Bakura," Tea said casually as she sat across from Tristan, giving him a tactfully fearful glance. Bakura snarled back at her. She gulped very quietly, and turned to Tristan to say hi.

"Hi," she said.

Tristan turned the page of his manga. "Hi, Tea," he said right back.

Right when he was about to rediscover the chorus' lyrics, he was interrupted again. Bakura felt like howling in frustration, so he did.

"You're funny, Bakura," Otagawa claimed.


	5. Next day, Morning

Leona Saclat- It's alright to be confused about Miho. I'll explain a bit about her, since she's only in approximately four fan fictions on this entire site, (making me extra determined to write about her! YEAH!)

Miho is a girl, whom Tristan likes, who only appeared in the first manga novel, as a quiet, shy, library aide, and the first anime series, as a popular, manipulative… library aide! I think if you go to Janime.biz, you can look up pictures of her. (The site is in Thai at first, but click on the button to make it English, and you'll be able to navigate around expertly.)

Hm… So, I chose to write about Miho the way she is in the first anime series. She's a very manipulative girl. In fact, I think I'll show that in this chapter. There! You gave me an idea! So, this chapter is dedicated to you. :)

"Tristan!" Miho rasped. Joey and Tristan both turned to stare at her. It was the next morning, and the vending machines were… well, broken. Meaning Miho had lost a few yen pieces to the machines, and she wasn't happy about it.

The brunette turned to look at her, his dark eyes muddled with confusion. "Yes, Miho?"

"I'm thirrrrrrrsty…" She clutched at her throat, breathing shakily. "I feel like I'm going to faint!"

Joey looked kind of shocked, while Tristan nodded. "Alright! Joey and I will get you a soda!"

"Oh, but I'm out of yen pieces…"

"Th—That's alright, I'll buy one for you free!" Tristan declared, ever the urbane sycophant. (Yeah, RIGHT.) Tristan and Joey ran off.

Tea stuck her head out the door, a half-lidded look on her face. "Geez, Miho… Do you always have to do that?"

Miho stuck out her tongue. "But it's always so fun to get my way!" she squeaked, right before a textbook hit her in the face. She clutched out her nose, trickles of blood flowing lightly from both nostrils. "OWWWWWWWWWWWW!" she screamed.

"Stupid girl," murmured Bakura, as he stooped to collect his flyaway textbook. Miho placed one hand on her hip, the other covering her nose. Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong with your schnozz-o-la there, girl? I didn't _hit _you there, did I? Oh dearie me. What a complete butterfingers I am. I'm so sorry. Don't you think I'm sorry, Otagawa?"

Miho blinked at the new boy she hadn't seen before—the one that Bakura had referred to as Otagawa.

"Sure, Bakura." Otagawa beamed at his new friend. Bakura was warming up to him! –That is what _he _thought, anyway.

Really, Bakura's thoughts on Otagawa were not so like that. Here's what Bakura's thoughts were kind of like.

_HEY! A mindless, impressionable, pliable lackey that I can manipulate! COOL!_

Little did he know that, in a few weeks, he would find that this was not true. Otagawa could be his own person. But Bakura had no idea how this would effect him.

A/N: So there you go! A little foreshadowing in the way of the OC. I really like Otagawa; he's the regular naïve nice guy. And, by the end of this story, you'll see that he influences Bakura in many ways, both directly and indirectly. He's cool. He's fun. He's Otagawa-kun.


	6. English Class

"A compound sentence is two independent clauses together with no subordinate clauses, and a complex sentence…" Scribble, scribble, scribble "…is a sentence with an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses. So, therefore…" Scribble, scribble, scribble "…a compound-complex sentence is a sentence that has two independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. Any questions? Yes Wheeler?"

"Er, yeah… What's an independent clause?"

"That's a clause that can stand by itself, Wheeler."

"Like Santa Claus?"

Ms. Jono sighed. Normally, she would've gotten very pissy, but ever since she had found a new, wonderful beau, she had been a lot nicer to her students… and besides, it was obvious that Joey _wasn't _kidding. The poor mutt—er, excuse her, boy (darn Kaiba's influences on the whole class!)—looked pitifully confused, almost to a point where he looked morose.

"No, Wheeler," she said patiently. "It's like a sentence that isn't a fragment. Like, for example, in this compound sentence…"

"This sucks monkey," Bakura murmured to himself as he ate a banana. Tristan laughed a little bit, but he was trying to pay attention as well to their English lesson. Bakura rolled his eyes, seeing as he _did _have quite a kickin' knowledge of all things English.

Miho's head, three seats in front of him, was very blue.

Hmmm…

"So, Joey, what are the two independent clauses in this sentence?" Ms. Jono asked, shifting one hand onto her hip so as to hold her pointer more easily.

"Um… 'Jon woke up' and 'got out of bed?'"

"Very good Joey. Lucky guess." Joey smiled nervously. "Doesn't anybody know why you don't need to write _Jon _after the preposition? Bakura?"

"Because _Jon _is implied."

"Yes. Alright, so, Kaiba, how can you link two simple sentences together to form a compound sentence?"

"With a semi-colon or a preposition."

"Such as?"

"But, so, and, etc."

"Good class!" Ms. Jono positively beamed. "You're actually learning something!"

Tea rolled her eyes and passed a note to Miho. Miho opened it. In Tea's loopy cursive, it read:

_I'm Ms. Jono! My class is finally learning something! OMG LIEK TOTALLY FREAK-OUT!_

Miho giggled, trying to think of something to write back.

"Miss Nosaka?"

"Um, yes?" Miho straightened up and looked straight at her teacher, trying to look as if she knew what they were talking about. English was her absolute worst subject, ever. Besides that woodshop fiasco… why did they make girls _take _that class, anyway! Thank goodness she had finished that last year!

"I—"

Pt. A crumpled up piece of paper hit Miho squarely on the top of her head. Bakura mouthed the word, "Yes!", looking strangely Ryou-like before he sat down. Ms. Jono glared at him.

"Bakura, detention."

"Again ma'am?"

"Again."

_Please, please, please, please, PLEASE review. :(_


	7. D Hall

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not stare at other guys in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not slash my own wrist in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not digest paper wads in school._

_I will not digest paper wads in school._

_I will not digest paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not bring my elephant to school._

_I will not watch CSI in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not have fun at school._

Bakura drummed his fingers against his desk. That was 57 lines… 43 more to go, and then he could get out of here and go back to class. Not that Bakura really cared for his classmates, you see, but he'd actually rather be learning. Bakura, as deceptive as this may seem, was actually very fond of learning new things, especially if they were to his benefit.

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not throw paper wads in school._

_I will not not throw paper wads in school._

Perhaps he was having a little too much fun with this… hm.

"Oi, Bakura!" Bakura looked up to see Otagawa.

"What is it?" he growled.

"It's lunchtime, just thought you'd want to know, since you're allowed to leave D-hall during lunch. I thought you would've heard the bell, but I guess you didn't."

"How do you know that I'm allowed to leave the detention room during lunch?" Bakura wrinkled his nose, hating the fact that Otagawa knew this despite never having been in the school's D-hall before. It wasn't fair! He hadn't earned it!

"I have my sources," Otagawa said mysteriously. This meant, most probably, Tea, who, Bakura surmised, had felt sorry for him or something. Bakura quickly scribbled down a memo that reminded him that he only had forty more to go before leaping out of his seat, more grateful than ever to have Otagawa to remind him of such things. After all, what if he starved? Unfortunately, as soon as he exited the detention room, he got smacked in the face by a flying fist.

Bakura roughly grabbed Miho's arm, and hissed in her ear, "_Meet me after school. Behind the bleachers."_

"No principals/no student teachers," Miho mumbled in response.

"Alone," Bakura continued in a whisper. Miho shook her head. "_Alone,_" he said more fervently, "unless you need a friendship gossip to back you up."

Miho nodded, her self-sufficiency now on the line. "Alone," she nodded. Bakura let go of her. She licked her thumb and massaged the bruise he had left on her skin, and then clacked down the hallway.

"What was that all about?" Otagawa asked.

"I'm gonna kill her," Bakura bluffed.

"Word."

"…Oh, you did _not _just say that!" Bakura decried. Otagawa laughed. Bakura suppressed the urge to glare at him. **You had to be nice to your lackeys…**


	8. In the Library

_DevilsPrincess- Aww! Your review more than made up for your laziness, yeah it did. :D Your review meant SO much to me! Especially because all of the things that you said you liked, are the things that I've been trying to achieve in this fic! You're awesome! You're great! _

_Akio the Dragon- Oh, the last time I heard it was sometime this year, probably out of my own mouth as a joke… Hm, yeah, that's probably right. And of course Bakura lives in D-hall! It reminded me of Archie, how he is always in detention in those comic books. :D Though I just thought of that now. O.o; Hey, it inspired me without me even thinking about it! Heh! But, yeah, Bakura would be in it a lot—tru dat. ;P_

_I really like this chapter! - Please review!_

"Sigh…" Miho, well, sighed. She was in the library. The place smelled like chalk, and the musty, offensive odor made her want to gag. Hundreds of books were placed crookedly on the sleek, black bookshelves, forming shadows as the sun filtered through the window and tried unsuccessfully to light every corner of the headlightless library. The library was still very large, though, and maybe a dozen and a half people were there, trying to eat their lunches in secret so as not to get caught—usually the losers who were afraid to eat lunch in the cafeteria—and then the smart-but-preppy girls who liked somewhere to hang.

So, if the library was so smelly, dark, and filled with geeks and/or hags, why was Miho there? You may want to know this. Experts have speculated that this may be because she is, in fact, a library aide.

Anyway, she was thinking about someone.

Someone she… (woo—OOOH!) _loved._

And _no, _that someone _wasn't _Ryou. She had liked Ryou, of course, yes. But he was gone. He had a new girlfriend. He was living on a different _continent, _for Pete's sake! If that's not a sign that he didn't like her, what was?

And by the way, you may think its Bakura. Well I am here to tell you: heck no! _This _guy had a lot more class… and was more anti-social than even Bakura.

Have you guessed it be now?

I'll give you a few seconds to think about this.

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It was Seto Kaiba.

_Yes, _Miho liked Seto. As a preppish fangirl, she was _bound _to, wasn't she? Most of the girls at Domino High School thought that Kaiba was an obnoxious jerk with an overblown ego.

Miho knew he was, but that didn't stop her from thinking that he was cute. Shallow, yes, but, hey…

The doors opened. Miho's eyes turned towards the door. She raised an eyebrow as she saw Joey walking into the room, holding some Goth's books. This Goth had glossy black hair that reached a few inches above the backs of her knees. Miho shrugged.

"Akazaya-san?"

"Hm? Oh, Miho-san… Yeah?" The girl balanced her books against her hip and stared lazily at Miho.

"That hagiography you got on Vladmir Dracul is in."

Akazaya's eyes lit up. "Oh, neat-o! Thanks, Miho. I'll pick it up when I find some more books to check out, okay?"

Miho nodded wearily. Akazaya was one of those Gothic girls who swore she was a vampire. Those soi-disant vampires just bugged the heck out of her… at least, they used to. After learning the truth about the Millennium Items, she supposed anything could happen…


	9. Last Class, Skipping

_DevilsPrincess- Even if you weren't so lazy this time, your review still made my day well worthwhile. I shall take your suggestion about keeping it more in 3rd-person gravely:) Thank you for continuing to aid me with helpful suggestions and by pointing out what parts of my style you enjoy:) As for "Gothic Chick"… I did have that sort of thing in mind for her, he he. And I'm thrilled that I surprised you! I tried hard to make it suprising… (notice all of the ellipses? (sweat drops))_

_Akio the Dragon Master- What was so scary about him again? (sweat drops) Eheh. I hope this DOES turn out interesting…_

_I will not toss paper wads at fat, ugly, insecure girly-girls in school, but instead I shall wait until I am out of school AND off-campus to throw sticks/rocks/tiny children at them instead._

"There!" A broad smile spread across Bakura's face, and he signed his name at the top of the paper with a flourish. He hopped out of his seat. "Ya-hoo!"

Bakura quickly went out and, feeling lighthearted, sought out his new friend Otagawa. Bakura was in a good enough mood to call him a friend. After all, Yugi called _his _lackeys friends, so why couldn't he tell the same lies?

Bakura recognized the way that Yugi's friends suppressed him. Because they expected so much of him, he wasn't allowed to fail, unless they expected him to fail, in which he would try very hard to keep up. He had to fail at least once in awhile, to keep his friends on their toes, or else they would get bored and seek out other company. The only time Yugi felt readily at ease was with his Yami.

It was the exact opposite with Bakura and Ryou; he didn't expect anything of Ryou, and Ryou, knowing that Bakura was full of surprises, never expected anything of him. It was better that way. It was even possible that Ryou might miss him in-between make-out sessions with his new girlfriend.

_Possible, _Bakura thought morosely, _and probable. But I still hope he's having fun. :)_

"Your grin is creepy, Bakura," Otagawa professed. Bakura's grim smile of glee dropped like a bucket. Behind him, somebody crashed _into _a bucket, making it drop, so the effect was quite nice.

"Yeah, well… same to you. You smile so… _happy…" _Bakura shuddered. "It's like my brother's, but a million times worse."

"You have a brother?" Otagawa said, taking books out from his locker and placing others into it. "Deposits and withdrawals," one student council member had said, "like a textbook bank!" From then on their lockers were called book banks, and everybody hated the name, so it was only used for formalities. Sometimes a person would occasionally call their locker "my mini-library," but absolutely no guy's did that.

"Yeah, his name is Ryou," Bakura found himself saying. Maybe he would tell Otagawa all about Ryou. He couldn't help wondering how Ryou was doing. Ryou had been gone for… hm. Like, three weeks or so. Bakura didn't remember exactly how much time had passed since he had last seen the only person that could crawl under his skin and cause his blood to boil just by being an acceptable person.

And he also plain missed Ryou.

A tomb robber, but also a person _very _deep down, Bakura was not immune to emotions.

"I thought you said that was your cousin," Otagawa said. Bakura blushed.

"C-Cousin, that's right," Bakura stammered—mentally cursing himself for doing so. "Ryou's my first cousin. He… uh, could pass for my twin though."

Otagawa laughed. "Yeah, you told me that. I can't believe you messed up and said he was your brother--!" Otagawa laughed as the two of them ran out of the hallway like gangbusters, cutting their very last class, which happened to be an integrated physics and chemistry class.

Bakura, vulnerably lost in his thoughts for only a moment, tripped on one of the school's crooked brick steps, which stuck out like teeth in a goofy grin—the type that dentist's have nightmares of. He was sent flying across the path that divided the southeast and southwest parts of the schoolyard, imagining Ryou's echoing in the crooks and crannies of his brain.


	10. Last Class, Skipping II

The air was fresh and clear. Domino City was an industrious city that avidly recycled and reused everything, and produced very little pollution. Most people used compost piles, saved leftovers, yadda yadda yadda.

The air was also cool, causing Otagawa to shiver a little bit—effectively drawing SO much of his attention that he forgot he was running like gangbusters down the path, and he tripped over a miniscule crack. "OWWWWW!"

Meanwhile, Bakura ran past him, imitating the run of Fat Albert from… Fat Albert, pointing and laughing at Otagawa as he ran.

Bakura glared with the intensity of a thousand suns at the person who was blocking their way. "What are you doing here!"

The tanned, spiky-haired Egyptian grinned like the Cheshire. Behind Bakura, Otagawa was whining because he had stubbed his toe. (And he was so happy before, ne?)

Marik Ishtal just grinned like a mad hatter. "Aww, darn you, Bakura. Just because I went away, that means you don't want me around anymore? I thought we were _friends."_

"We were enemies!" Bakura barked. _"This _guy's my friend."

Bakura gestured with his arm backwards towards Otagawa. Otagawa looked up, a smile plastered on his round face. "Hi!"

Marik sweat dropped. "Um, he's an idiot?"

"Yeah. Lackeys are idiots."

"Lackey?"

"Lackey, friend, whatever."

"Is there a difference?" asked Marik curiously.

Bakura considered this. "Well… I've never heard of one…"

"Yeah." Marik shook his head. "Wait a second! I'm here to act EEEEEEVIL!" Marik held up a book. "I have a library book and it's yours! _It's overdue by five weeks! Muahahahhaha!"_

"What book is it?" Otagawa wondered. "And how did you get Bakura's library card?"

Bakura sweat dropped. "I think Otagawa's naivete is more evil… Anyway, Marik, I don't care about the book. It's really, really mediocre for you… um… weren't you dead?"

Otagawa said: "Whoa! Zombie!"

Bakura bigsweated. "Otagawa… this is my… uh… acquaintance, Marik."

"Nice to meet you, Marik!" Otagawa grinned stupidly. Marik stared at him hard.

Bakura said, "And Marik… this is Otagawa… my lackey-friend-thing."

"Hi! I'm Otagawa!" Otagawa was now _shaking Marik's hand. _Bakura winced. His friend was definitely rattling the tiger's cage with this gesture.

"Otagawa?"

"Hm?"

"…Marik doesn't like to be touched."

"Oh! Sorry!" Otagawa jumped back and smiled.

Bakura pushed Otagawa past Marik. "Well, I'll see you later for a Shadow Game," he hissed in Marik's ear.

"What were you talking about?" Otagawa asked as they left a very confused Marik behind.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's a 'Shadow Game'?"

Bakura stopped dead in his tracks. "Uhhhh…"


	11. Last Class, Skipping III

Note: To all of those who read _Malik's Answering Machine, _I am finally, after months and months, going to update chapter 13! However, I'm waiting to receive 20 reviews today before I do it. So get to it!

_Alexa G.- Okay! I'll try to make the chapters a little longer. I have big plans for later on in the story, so expect longer chapters a bit later…_

_trueyamigirlfriend- S'okay. Glad you are enjoying the fic!_

_Akio the Dragon Master- Perhaps they are, Akio-chan, perhaps they are. But try explaining that to Marik. _

_DevilsPrincess- Ha ha, me, give tips? Eh… but your tips have helped me so much! Lol._

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. I do, however, own the plot for this story, and the little rap-song thingy that I made up while listening to… well… rap. (shrugs) I needed _something _to go in there, after all…**

"And I don't give a #! who've you've got on hold/I just traded in my car for pot and birth control

"Somebody said I can't #, I'm too old/I'm just trying to give my baby girl some gold…"

Bakura and Otagawa grimaced. Neither of them liked this song, but they couldn't change it; they wouldn't look badass-cool if they weren't listening to highly-inappropriate music on the public streets in town square.

It hadn't taken Bakura very long to tell Otagawa that a Shadow Game was just Duel Monsters with a few different house rules and such. Now, they were trying to look cool. Well, Otagawa was. Bakura _was _cool. He was wearing his Battle City outfit, and every girl that passed by him was drooling… and one guy, too! (Bakura tried not to look so… _cute, _after that.)

Otagawa asked a lot of questions about Marik.

"That guy didn't act like he was our age, though," Otagawa offered. Bakura rolled his eyes.

"He's a little slow," Bakura said. "He's… not the type of person you would like to hang out with, Otagawa." Bakura added a tacit _-kun _to the end of the name, mouthing it but not pronouncing it. Ryou always used polite honorifics like that, so it just seemed natural. Outwardly, though, Bakura was highly in the practice of using _yobisute, _which meant adding no honorifics on the end of the name at all. It could be okay, if used for very well-known friends or for family, but other than that, it was quite rude, and that was why Bakura used it so much.

Again, Bakura wondered what Ryou was up to.

"So how long have you known her?"

Otagawa's words stirred Bakura out of his reminiscent cerebration. "Uh… what?" he responded, quite doltishly I might add. His eyes were tiny dots. (Cute and funny mental image:D)

"I just asked you how long you've known Miho and them."

Bakura groused: "Why do you care so much about her?"

Otagawa shrugged. "I was just wondering!"

"Two years. Ever since my host… I mean, my _itoko _(cousin) moved here and I moved with him."

"From where?"

"From England."

"From London?"

"Naw, some crappy little place down by the seashore. Nice place to grow up, if you like hailstorms and typhoons."

"You can get typhoons in England?"

"Uhh… maybe," Bakura said. He had been bluffing.

"Oh. That would seem cool. Hailstorms?"

"Well," Bakura said, speaking expressly from Ryou's childhood memories now, "in the summers it was really hot, and in the winters it would… yes, it would hail a lot. Then you'd walk across the sand, which would be half-frozen, kind of like permafrost, and it the sand didn't freeze your skin right off, you'd step on a piece of hail and bruise your foot or trip over it and jut your chin open or something." (This had happened to Ryou three times.) "The autumns were okay… the leaves didn't really change color so much, except for this one really big tree in Ryou's front yard, which really seemed like the back yard because, I don't know, even thought it faced the street, it felt more like it _really _faced the ocean, you know? Anyway, there was this one big tree that changed colors… and leaves transmuted from a dull orange to a muddy brown… but when you're little, you think this is really fascinating, no matter how ugly the colors are. The springtime was really annoying though, because that was when some of the damn crabs would be born from their opalescent little eggs, and when you stepped into the foam that the waves heaved up onto the shore, you could step right next to them or on top of them and never even know it…"

"Were… _are, _there any dangerous animals in UK waters?"

"Um…" Bakura sought to remember: "There were these sea urchins… if you stepped on those, they'd splinter your toes, and _owch _did it ever hurt… um, once the area near us was visited by a Portugese Man O' War… Those are really rare, though. Sometimes we'd find a Velvet Swimming Crab, and those can really hurt you, but neither of us ever got hurt by one—"

"You live with him?"

"Live with who?"

"Bakura Ryou."

"Oh. Yeah." His voice sounded really blank. Did he always sound this stupid?

"But now he's back in England," Otagawa said, almost accusingly. Or maybe, Bakura thought with a slight gulp, it was just his _mind _telling him that Otagawa was accusing him.

"I guess."

"Why aren't you?"

"I didn't need to go."

"Why did he need to go?"

"Um… he wanted to visit his family again." Bakura shuffled his feet on the pavement. "My, uh, parents are dead, so I… live with Ryou and his family when I was growing up… but now I don't like to burden them so much. They're kind of airheads, you know?" Bakura offered Otagawa a weak grin. "And, yeah, um… yeah."

"So how long ago did he leave?"

"Uh… three weeks to a month, I guess. I don't remember the exact date."

"When's he coming back?" Otagawa continued to question.

Bakura tried to amplify his squeak of a voice: "I don't know…"

"Why don't you know?" Otagawa asked, raising both eyebrows and eating an ice cream cone, which dripped—Bakura could've sworn he'd done it on purpose—on the front of his white shirt, that went under his navy blue uniform jacket. It was vanilla, though, so one couldn't tell it was stained unless they were near him.

"…He's not sure yet…"

"Is he missing school?"

"I suppose so… No, I'm just ki—kidding, he's probably going to school there, but he hasn't told me much about it."

"And he has a girlfriend there? And that's why he doesn't want to leave?"

Had he told him that? "Uhm… yeah, I guess…"

When one said it like that, why _wasn't _Ryou coming home? Bakura's lower lip quivered with something… not quite, but not quite unlike, aggravated concern.

Maybe it was time he actually made a phone call…


	12. Day 5 or the Next Day, Before School

_Akio the Dragon Master- Aw, you KNOW you just want to huggle Otagawa! (…so you can pistol-whip him when he's off guard…)_

_DevilsPrincess- Thank you so much for your support and your help and suggestions:) I'm glad that you thought that I wrote the last chapter skillfully. I actually researched dangerous fish in UK waters so that I wouldn't mess up too badly. :) _

It was early the next morning. Miho was shelving some books and trying to wake herself up. Even though her older brother had driven her to school, she still hadn't quite been able to get her bloodstream pumping, leaving her weary with lassitude.

The sound of a book dropping deterred her. Miho's head swiveled bleakly in the direction of the sound. She blinked. No; it couldn't be, all of this morning gunk in her eyes must be making her see a mirage…

She yawned, rubbed her eyes, blinked a few times, and looked again. No, he was still there…

"Kaiba-san?"

The brunette turned a light shade of pink. "Sorry," he apologized, "I didn't mean to knock the book off of the table."

"Oh… That's alright." Miho must have floated over to the table, because she didn't remember moving her feet and couldn't figure out how she would've anyway, she was so tired. Reaching over, she picked up the book. It was a rather thick copy of _Robinson Crusoe,_ written by Daniel Defoe, with an ornate green cover depicting a lively scene. Yawning for the umpteenth time, she stretched as well.

"Here." Seto nudged something over her way. When she didn't move to take it, he grabbed her hands and placed them around something hot. "Drink this. It'll wake you up."

"Really?" Miho took a deep breath in, taking in the rich scent of the coffee. She drank it slowly, but not sparingly; she had downed half of the mug with one sip, it had just taken her awhile. "Th…Thank you." Miho smiled. "I guess you're really not as mean as they say you are."

Seto rolled his eyes. "Not really. I do have a heart, you know. It's just that I usually keep it in my other trench coats."

Miho smiled, her hands still around the warm cup of coffee. She took another hasty sip before adding, "Well thank you! What are you doing here so early?"

"Working," Seto said. At first she thought he meant on KaibaCorp, but then she distinguished the pre-cal worksheet they had been assigned yesterday.

"Oh… schoolwork." Miho smiled benignly. "Um… I think I just drank all of your coffee…"

"That's okay. That was my second one, anyway. I might've taken a sip out of it, though, I can't remember."

"Oh… Okay." Miho smiled vapidly and set it down before sauntering past the check-out counter and to a small hallway where the girl's restroom was. She went inside and splashed cold water on her face, totally disregarding the fact that it was _school _water, and therefore might not be _clean._

She looked at herself. Her cheeks were red from where she had rubbed them with water in an attempt to sober herself up for the day, and her throat itched. She went outside—Seto was working on his pre-cal assiduously—retrieved a small kit from her backpack, and went back into the bathroom. She had stupidly wiped off all of her make-up when she'd splashed herself with water! Now she had to do her make-up rituals all over again…

When she was done, Miho blinked at herself in the mirror. A thought suddenly struck her:

What on Earth had just happened?

* * *

Bakura yawned as he entered the schoolyard. It was much too early for his liking, but he had to remember that in England it was four hours later. With any luck, Bakura would reach Ryou during his lunch time. He had a hunch that's what would happen.

Bakura dragged himself over to the pay phone. Taking out two wallets full of quarters, he proceeded to insert a whole bunch of money into the phone.

_I wonder why our school pay phones are able to make long-distance phone calls, _he mused. _Maybe the school board is just paranoid? Or maybe we're going to phone famous politicians instead of writing to them. Huh… _

The phone rang… each ring seemed to be five minutes apart as Bakura's mind broke it down into an antagonizing, slow sequence. Finally, somebody picked up.

"Ryou Bakura here."

"Ya… Yadonushi-sama?"

Bakura always called Ryou Yadonushi-sama. It meant "lord's property," with an honorific added at the end to mean "respected."

Bakura could hear a pause on the other end, and then some heated whispers followed by shuffling. He could hear the crunch of dead leaves underneath his other soul's sneakers.

"…Bakura?" Ryou said incredulously. "What on Earth are you calling me for in the middle of lunchtime?" (Bakura silently pumped his fist, grinning.) "Is everything all right?"

"Everything is alright, yadonushi-sama… Uhm… everyone is kind of wondering if you'll ever come back."

_Ok, so that's a teensy lie… _

"Oh. Well, I—AUGH!"

Bakura knew that Ryou's cell phone had dropped to the ground, its batteries flying out. He also knew that Ryou had been assailed by a flyaway soccer ball. Their bond, while on the phone, had been reopened for a short time.

So what if the line had gone dead? He would try again later.

He didn't know why this was eating at him so much. Perhaps he truly loved Ryou as a brother. Who would know?

But Bakura apparently had bigger problems, as he saw Marik walking slowly down the hallway towards him, wearing a big grin—

…and the school uniform.


	13. English Class

Akio the Dragon Master- Now you've got "Run for your Life" stuck in my head again! Lol.

DevilsPrincess- Thanks! I actually had very little confidence in my last chapter—for Miho's part, at least. I thought I didn't put in enough description. That exact sentence you pointed out -- "Wearing a big grin – and the school uniform" -- is, to be precise, what I believe is called a zeugma. Chalk one up for English, huh:D Thanks for telling me that you like how I'm keeping my characters in canon.

Leona Scarlet- You're welcome! Cool translation. (sweat drops) I thought you had let your cat walk on the keyboard at first... He he. I like rain! My grandparents are on their way to Wales for a vacation right now. Be on the look out for Canadians from New York! o.o;; Well, I didn't do it from America... Domino City is in Japan, so I did it from that. I checked a time zone map on the Internet... And thanks for reminding me about the whole football thing. What, exactly, _is _rugby (such a cool word)? Eh... And no! It's not bothering me at all! Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix it.

"The dog **_is _**walking.

"The dogs **_are _**walking.

"The dog and I **_are _**walking.

"The dog **_was _**walking.

"The dogs **_were _**walking.

"The dog and I **_were _**walking.

"I **_walked_**."

"Very good, Gardner," Ms. Jono professed. "Hm… How about… Wheeler, you can do the next batch, can't you?"

"Uhm…" Joey was still rummaging through his binder, looking for the homework he could've sworn he had put right there… "Sorry, miss…"

Tristan let out a tacit arm and stretched his sleeping arms.

"Oh! Yes, Mr. Taylor, you will read the answers?"

Tristan sweat dropped. 'Mr. Taylor' sounded like the name of a janitor or a brand of preschool toys. "Um… Sure."

Tristan read his answers aloud:

"The c… c-c-cat **_was _**meowing…

"The c-cat **_did _**meowing…

"The fats **_neowed_** in unison…"

A series of giggles spread like magic dust around the classroom.

"The cat **_meowed._**

"I went to Becky's to pet her fat…"

Rampant laughter struck the classroom like lightning. Tristan shut himself up into a tiny, closed shell and kept reading.

"The cats **_were _**meowing… and I **_listened _**to the cats meowing?" Tristan finished, flourishing his answers with a verbal question mark.

Ms. Jono nodded. "Number nine was also **_was _**meowing, but other than that you got it correct… Just don't get so nervous when you read. I don't think Americans are going to commiserate with you when you mix up your F's with your C's."

Several students kept sniggering. Ms. Jono glared at all of them. "All of you, worthless dogs, finish the rest of the worksheet!"

The class hunkered down and got busy. Miho stole a glance at Kaiba, who was seated next to her. Last year Kaiba had anti-socially placed himself at the back of the class; this year, they had a new seating chart that left Kaiba in the middle of the classroom, but still with a seat by the window. Not that he ever took advantage of it; Miho had never seen him look out the window.

"…Nosaka! What do you think you are doing?"

All of the heads in the room swiveled towards Miho, eager to see what it was that she was getting yelled at for.

Miho's animated sweat drop dangled from her ponytail. "Uhm… what exactly is it that you think I'm doing, miss?" she inquired.

"I think that you're staring at Mr. Kaiba."

The entire class made the _poof _sound, the one that one makes when they are trying to repress a laugh and a simple _tch _will not suffice. Miho and Kaiba's faces were both beet red.

"Um… sorry, miss…"

"Don't apologize to me," Ms. Jono said mercilessly. A cruel smile creased her make-up'd features. "But please do apologize to Mr. Kaiba."

"I'm sorry, Kaiba."

"Facing him."

Miho turned and looked at Kaiba's spiffy new shoes that were just like everybody elses. "I'm—"

"At his face."

Miho's blush worsened in intensity. Her gaze slowly rose to Kaiba's face. He was looking at her gruffly, willing her to just say it so that they could get all this meaningly crap over with.

"I'm sorry Kaiba," she said, and she started blushing all over again. Another round of sniggers raced around the room.

"Kaiba?" Ms. Jono asked, snapping her fingers as if she was some Jazz lady in one of those Jazz night clubs.

"Apology accepted."

"Good. Now…" Ms. Jono sent a glare raging out over the room. "GET BACK TO WORK!"

Once again, the class hunkered down and got to work. Miho kept her head down, to avoid being seen.


	14. Lunch

DarkAngel4u- It took you 11 chapters to love Miho's personality! But she's so… cuddly! In a strictly non-sensual way… Tristan: (disagrees and is drooling over Miho) …Baka…

Akio the Dragon Master- NAW… ya think? (sweat drop)

DevilsPrincess- It's just a standard practice to make sure they know their verb conjugations. I read something like it in Negima. You know what's even funnier than Mr. Taylor? The fact that in Japanese, his name is "Honda." Yeah, Ms. Jono's character is kind of all over the place… I'm glad you told me you liked the Jazz line! I actually almost took that out. Don't worry, advancements will be made soon… VERY soon… in fact, in this chapter, soon. :) I hadn't really thought about any Marik/Miho interaction, I guess it's something I'll have to think about. :) Hey, the longer, the more I learn about how you like my stuff! Thanks!

Leona Saclat- The teacher, since you were commenting about her, is actually their teacher in the first manga novel. She's a lot nicer in my story though… sometimes. :)

"Geez Miho, don't be so embarrassed; people get caught staring at Seto Kaiba all the time," Tea solaced her friend as they walked to the cafeteria. "Remember last week? When she told Bakura to 'stop flirting' with Seto Kaiba?"

"They were yelling at each other."

"Yeah, their arguing got them in the school newspaper. Ack, I guess we really _don't _have anything to write about these days." Tea got in line for lunch and, with Miho following suit, picked up a lunch tray and dropped a small milk carton on it. The sound it made was _clonk._

Miho's carton hit her tray with a _clonk _as well. Both girls giggled.

"Yeah," Tea said, as if there had been no pause in their conversation, "but everybody gets caught staring at one point or another."

"He's a handsome guy, huh?" Miho cooed vapidly. Tea sweat dropped.

"You _like _that freak…? I just thought you were looking at him because, you know, he's Kaiba. The city's biggest anti-social trench coat-wearing CEO—and possibly the world's, too, now that I think about it." Tea rubbed her chin thoughtfully, making "Hmmmm" sounds. Miho giggled again.

"No, I think he's cute."

Tea rolled her eyes, a soft sigh escaping her lips, as if to say, _Here we go again. _"Looks aren't everything, Miho."

"Okay… and he's smart."

"Yeah, so?"

"And he's a snappy dresser."

"He's a bunch of drawers?"

Miho rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean, Tea. Oh, hey, did you see Akazaya's skirt yesterday? It was like, Gothic and Amish."

"It looked good on her… plus she was wearing a plaid top… that was kind of different," Tea observed, already munching on an apple as she stood in line.

"It's good that she doesn't wear all black, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"You two have the boringest conversations."

The two girl's eyes widened, and they turned around excitedly. "Omigod!" they squealed.

Bakura was jogging through the soccer fields. A recent rain had surprised everyone last night, leaving Domino fresh-smelling and the ground marshy. His sneakers slipped in the lubricious mud.

He near-tripped onto the roofed pavement. He passed by Joey, who was busy making out with Azakaya, and pulled open the double glass doors, nearly bashing the snogging teens. Stepping inside, he sweat dropped as people already started to stare at him. His pants, from the knees down, were caked with mud, and from the knees up he had some streaks here or there. His hair was slightly frizzy, too.

"I told you not to mud wrestle with Kaoruko!" one guy shouted loudly. A bunch of people laughed.

Bakura growled. Damn that Marik. Having to drag him all the way out there just to say Hi…

"_So, why are we here?" Bakura asked. He popped his bubblegum obnoxiously; peopled hated that._

"…_I just wanted to say…" Marik cleared his throat, or sneezed gruffly, whatever._

"_Yes?"_

"…_HI!"_

_Bakura fell over, narrowly missing a deep patch of mud and instead landing on a knot of tattered and tangled roots. "Ow!"_

_Marik ran away laughing like a naughty preschooler._

"…Idiot." Bakura brushed a lock of hair out his eyes. The condensation outside had made it slightly damp. "Idiot, idiot, idioooooot…"

"Yes Bakura?" Otagawa and Tristan said at the same time.

Bakura fell over again, this time his head hitting a bucket full of white paint.

Seto Kaiba was spending his lunchtime in the east section of the library. Surreptitiously plucking a grape out of a Tupperware container, he popped it into his mouth, tapping the keys on his laptop furiously with one hand.

"Who cares about Uganda, anyway?" Kaiba sighed. "Nobody wants to write a report on African countries… of course, Yugi and Yami got to do Egypt together because they actually went there this weekend. Stupid, special—pe—uh, _people!_"

"Sssh!" The librarian shushed him. Seto sighed, his mussed-up bangs falling in front of his face.

"There was no point in coming here today…"

Seto sighed again.

The tanned boy blinked curiously at them. "Uhm, hello?" He poked Tea in the arm. "You guys just squealed, and then you did nothing. …Hey Tea, you're fat."

_That _brought Tea out of her temporary daze. She growled and brandished her tray, her milk nearly flying off.

Yugi smiled at her and gave her the puppy eyes. "I'm sorry, I lied!" he squealed softly, "Miho! Tea! It's so nice to see you guys. It feels like I've been gone for years."

"You've only been gone for five days, four hours and three and a half minutes," Tea pointed out, while Miho commenced to snuggle Yugi.

"You're so cuuuuuuuute!" Miho crooned, flicking Yugi across the nose. Yugi's copious sweat drops dissipated, replaced by crossed veins bulging.

"Let go of me baka girl!" Yugi tried to shove Miho off but only succeeding in sliding her grip from his upper arm to his lower arm, which actually hurt. He grimaced.

"Is Yami here?" Tea interrupted the two's reunion. Yugi threatened to kick Miho if she didn't get off of him. (He'd never hurt a girl on purpose, though.)

"No," Yugi explained. "I just came to tell the school officials that Yami and I are back from our 'educational vacation'."

"Is that why you guys got to go?"

"Yup."

"Well, did you learn anything?"

"Tons."

"Like what?" Tea asked, sitting down. Yugi sat down across from her, and Miho next to Yugi. Her little glomping episode would be all over the school by next period, and there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that she did not like Seto Kaiba specifically. They would just think that she was a coquette. Well, sure, she was coquettish! It wasn't like she was denying it.

"What do you want to know?" Yugi asked, eating some of Miho's tofu. Miho grimaced. She didn't even remember the lunch lady slapping that down on her tray.

"Something about the Egyptian people," Tea said.

Yugi's reply was instant and flat: "Malik has five girlfriends."

Tea sweat dropped. "Oh… well, that's nice." Inwardly, she was thinking, _It figures that the first thing that comes to Yugi's mind is the number of light-o'-loves that Malik has… Wait, FIVE? _


	15. Right After Lunch

_It's is nine o' two. That means that my internet connection effectively just went down two minutes ago, and will not work again until midnight, thanks to my adoring parents. I have two tests tomorrow and I need to finish I book that is written in French, so I'm doing the right thing by writing this_ _instead. There is good in neglect._

Yugi promised to come visit Miho and Tea again for lunch tomorrow (sans Yami, to Tea's great disappointment) and was just about to leave. It was five minutes until lunch ended, and the halls were crowded with those who preferred to stand while digesting, or those who liked to stick other people in lockers and slam the door shut.

Tea's phone rang. She placed her hands on it. "I'll see you tomorrow, Yugi!" She smiled at him. Usually those smiles were enough to make Yugi melt, whether he was over her or not. Now he just nodded and smiled back, then excused himself to leave. Miho waved goodbye.

"BYE YUGI!" she screamed. Tea rolled her eyes and picked up her phone. "Hello?" she said, cradling the phone against her ear as she fiddled with her locker. "Mom?"

The hallway was so loud, she felt like shushing people. She could barely hear the person on the other end of the phone. They were whispering something to her. "Mom? The reception's bad. Mom?"

Someone inadvertently knocked into her, causing her to drop the phone. "Hey!" Tea stamped her foot and glared at the person who had knocked into her—Joey Wheeler.

"Sorry, Tea. Was it important?" Joey leaned over and plucked the cell phone off of the ground, politely depositing it in Tea's waiting hands.

She sighed. "Don't know; I dropped it before I could hear what they were saying, whoever it was. It must've been my mom, this is a new cell phone. Hey, where did Miho go?"

"She said something about shelving a few books before the bell rang. It's almost like she _likes _her work, eh?"

"Well, have you ever noticed that Miho likes to organize things? Like, in her room, she has a whole fashion of these cool, glass animals, and she arranged them in alphabetical order- boy and centipede and dragon and unicorn…"

Joey looked at her with an unwavering gaze, but she knew that the wheels were turning in his head. "None of those are animals, though."

"Well, mythical creatures too." Tea and Joey walked into the classroom, and she unloaded her stuff on the desk.

"'Boy'?"

"She prefers to call it the beau-ideal; that makes it more mythical."

"Oh. Is that like, a nice guy or something?" Joey scratched his head. "'Cause girls like it when we're nice, right?"

Tea pursed her lips together, thinking hard. "…Do all guys refer to males in general in the 2nd person?" she finally asked.

Joey blinked. "Yeah. Yeah, we do."

"Ah." Tea clicked her tongue. "Well, yeah, Joey. A beau-ideal means, like, a role model."

"You like using French words, huh Tea?" Joey sat backwards in the seat in front of her, ignoring the girl pouting because he was momentarily reclining in her seat. "Like, I remember you using the word 'bourgeois' once in Duelist Kingdom."

"You remember stuff like that?"

"Yes… I also remember the size shoes you were wearing."

Tea gaze Joey a creepy look. "Uhmm… riiight… That sounds a little like Crump."

Joey grinned lopsidedly, swinging his legs over the side of the seat and hopping to his feet. "Aw, lighten up, Tea; I didn't know what size your feet were, or are, and furthermore, I don't even care!" Joey whistled happily.

"…Is something good about that?" Tea asked curiously, wanting to curb the derangement that started when Joey's eyes became two rounded chibi arches.

"Yeah!" Joey said. "Because this girl that I'm with now, her boyfriend broke up with her because he said her feet were too tiny."

"Oh…"

"Now he's going out with _that _girl." Joey pointed to, well, _that _girl. She was chubby, had short, black hair, a slightly tanned face pocked with white freckles, and very, very fat lips. When she spoke, her mouth was a rounded black hole, an endless abyss of verbal diarrhea. Tea seemed to remember that she was in Ryou Bakura's fan club, and that she was always one of Duke's cheerleaders.

"…Good for him?" Tea sweat dropped. "Um, Joey, lean closer."

"Why?" Joey leaned towards her. Tea sweat dropped even more.

"Closer."

"…No," Joey said, suddenly embarrassed. He moved over to his seat. Tea tripped as she rose to her feet.

"No, Joey, wait, I meant that she's too UGLY and just wanted to ask if your new girl is prettier than her and I didn't want to say it out loud!" she screamed. Everybody looked at her, including the Fat One.

"…Ehehehe…" Tea ran out of the room. The bell rang.

"Miss Tea, you're late," said Ms. Jono amusedly. She had watched her run out of the room, only to freeze when the bell rang, right in the doorway. "Now don't make me send you to detention…"

Tea's face flushed, and she turned to the teacher and bowed. "Sumimasen," she said softly and reverently. "It will never happen again."

Unfortunately, she bowed just a little too low, and the next person to enter the room got a darned good look at her underwear.

And that person was the substitute teacher.

The guy was only in his early 20s, perhaps a college student from a nearby university. His face was beet red, as was Tea's. She quickly moved towards her desk, throwing a dirty look towards Joey, who mouthed the word, 'What?'

The sub nervously went up to the front desk. "Class," Ms. Jono said, "this is the son of my best friend's… _booooooooooifurendo!"_

"Ooooh," they all oohed.

"He's cute," Miho said. The guy sweat dropped. His palms were sweaty/knees weaks, there's vomit on his sweat already---oh, pardon, I went off in song.

"His name is Elmer Maryellen Iotsupica Nathaniel Emcee Man," Ms. Jono said lovingly. "Say hi, El-kun."

El-kun sweat dropped.

"Hi," he said.

"WOO! WHAT'S YOUR SIGN!" yelled Joey, loudly. Everybody laughed. The guy sweat dropped. "Is he… gay…?" He had only whispered it to himself, but Bakura, entering the classroom with a large knife in his hand, nodded drunkenly.

"Yes," Bakura said. "Yes he is."

"Bakura!" Ms. Jono pried the knife from the thief. "I told you, if you do that one more time, I'm seriously going to spank you!"

"…Fun…" Bakura slurred. Several of the students giggled.

Ms. Jono gaped at him. "…Bakura, are you drunk?"

"If I was drunk, would I tell you?" Bakura pointed out the obvious.

Ms. Jono pursed her lips together, apparently deciding. "Uhm… you might."

"Well, I would have to be really, really, really—" Bakura spread his arms wide, "—really drunk. And no, I'm not. What I took was so much worse…"

"I'm writing you up."

"No, don't! Have mercy! It was Benadryl…"

Ms. Jono's eyes widened. "NO! NOT BENADRYL! NOOOOOOO!"

"--What's Benadryl?" Tristan asked.

"It's an allergy medicine," somebody told him.

"Oh."

"It makes you really sleepy, though."

"Oh."

Ms. Jono was standing there, wondering what to do with Bakura, who had just fallen asleep standing up and was snoring quite loudly. Some of the girls giggled, and said, "Aw, how cute," since he couldn't hear them. Miho and Tea looked irate, and Kaiba looked downright furious at this idiocy.

Meanwhile, Elmer Maryellen Iotsupica Nathaniel Emcee Man looked nervously from side to side, monolithic sweat starting to seep through his clothes. The nervous man, as soon as Ms. Jono had her back fully turned to him, made a clean run for it. Minutes later, everyone stopped what they were doing to amusedly watch him run across the schoolyard, as, thinking that nobody could see him, he started doing ballet.

* * *

An hour later, after a classroom game of "let's feed 'Kura sugar water and carbonated beverages," Bakura Mimoto (that was what Ryou had said his name was) was back to his normal state, and sulking. 

"BAKURA'S GONNA GET FAT!" Miho stuck her tongue out at him and pulled down on her lower eyelid. "He ate THREE PIECES of that cake they served at lunch today, as well as all of this soda! And it isn't even Diet!"

Bakura growled. "Shut up, wench."

His stomach rumbled.

The class laughed. Bakura hissed at them. They shut up. Bakura was _not _one to be crossed. Most of the school didn't even know why, but they avoided him just because he had this quasi-gothic vampire's aura around him, and sharp teeth. Some had seen him taunt the gym teacher, and anybody that could make Coach Karita scream like a girl—all Bakura had done was bare his teeth at him—was one to be avoided vehemently.

Bakura leaned forward in Miho's ear. "This has to stop," he hissed. "Before this week is over… we are going to… work this out."

Bakura leaned back in his seat, satisfied. Miho sort of gaped at him before going back to his seat. The class's whispers indicated that they wanted to know what Bakura had said—what could make Miho look so horrified?

Bakura stared intently out the window during class that afternoon. He might've been blushing. He was certainly upset with himself. He felt like a pantywaist, because he wanted to talk things out with Miho, just like adults always recommended. (Then again, adults also recommended edited CDs and non-violent video games, so who cared what they said?)

_Why? _Bakura tapped his pencil against his desk. His left hand was up against his face, with the curve of the index finger pressed against the area above his lip. His eyes, ever suspicious, were fascinated by the windows. Not what was outside the windows, but the windows themselves. Glass was good. :)

The tomb thief decided not to figure out why—screw it. Bakura knew he had to work things out. Things weren't that bad… yet. But something was telling him to work things out so that he had a clean record… maybe it was Ryou. When Ryou came home, Bakura didn't want to be in the middle of a social war.

_If _Ryou came home. What if his better half had been joking? He'd done it once before, and Bakura had been infuriated. He'd practically breathed fire down Ryou's neck over the phone. What was—

"Mr. Bakura!"

Bakura's head snapped up. "Uhm, yes, Ms. Jono?" he said pleasantly, hoping that he'd get points for being cute.

"What is the oldest wooden structure in Nara prefecture?" She glared at him.

Bakura curled his lips, giving her a sneer. "The Hyoruji Pagoda," he declared. "Even _I _know that."

Ms. Jono's lips formed a round '**O**' shape. She looked astonished. "Oh… um… yes." She blinked.

"Really?" said Joey. "'Cause I didn't."

"Didn't what?" Bakura scowled.

"I didn't know that!" Joey exclaimed.

"We took a field trip there last year, Joey!" Tristan reminded him. "Sheez."

"Oh! Oh yeah!"

And the teacher just stood there, embarrassed and dumbfounded. Just like he wanted Miho to look. Now, if he could only think up what to say.

Maybe he should start with, "Your mother"…?

_Your mother was a hamster! _He could hear Ryou citing it with such clarity… Bakura closed his eyes and slumbered through the rest of the class. He woke up with doodles all over his arm in sky-blue highlighter.


	16. After School

_Akio the Dragon Master- If you read it, it must be true! Ha HA!_

_DarkAngel4u- Ha ha, thanks. :)_

Even though only two people reviewed the last chapter, I'm still updating because, well, I figure that's what you guys want. :) Please review every chapter you read, if you have that much time. Also, thanks you guys for making this fic really special. It's already gotten 40 reviews. I am in an extra-good mood today because Malik's Answering Machine reached its 200th review, and Newsflash is pushing 100 right now. So thanks to each and every one of y'all!

It was last period. Miho was trying to wipe a doodle off of the library counter with a rag. "Stupid Goth-girl… mad because I insulted her stupid tank-top… Black tank-tops suck…"

"Nosaka-san?"

Miho growled. "Can't you see I'm busy?" she snapped, without bothering to look up. The soap was soaking into her hands… her fingers looked like raisins. Thank goodness the school day was over!

The school day had been pretty weird. Yugi had taken off, Tea had taken to sighing happily knowing that Yami was coming back to school soon, and then the oddest thing had happened. Bakura had come up and challenged her to… to something. Did he want to fight her? Miho couldn't figure it out, but she wasn't going to back down. That sneer on his face… had to be wiped off. Permanently.

"Gomen… I thought you'd want to talk to me."

_Wait a minute, _Miho thought. "Kaiba?"

Kaiba wanted to roll his eyes, but he forced himself not to. "Yeah, I…" Miho stared at him, gaping. "Do you always look like that?" he asked off-handedly, annoyed.

"I just never thought you'd talk to me," Miho apologized. "In fact, why… Oh, do I owe you for the coffee?" Miho freaked out. "Um, hold on… I don't have money with me but I think I have some in my locker."

"No, no." Kaiba shook his head. He was standing uncharacteristically still. "I… uh… actually… I…"

And the brave Seto Kaiba's gaze slipped just a bit to the floor. "I… wanted to ask you out," he said. Reminding himself that he was _the _Seto Kaiba, and that he didn't want to look like a shy loser, he forced himself to look up and at her face.

Miho was blushing like there was no tomorrow. Which is odd, because as far as I can see, there's nothing very embarrassing about that. So let's say that she was blushing like somebody in a tiger exhibit at the zoo, naked, with people watching. O O;; What? You got a problem with my similes? Because _I _think that would be embarrassing! So there!

So, yeah. Miho's heart skipped a beat to add more drama to the scene that I just made very anti-dramatic. Seto Kaiba… said _what?_

"Wh…whaa?" A soft pink color embraced her cheeks, and she took a slow, deep breath. "R…Really?"

"Yes," Kaiba said. Nodding would make him seem shy, and besides, he might start observing the floor again. But it was such a lovely purple color… "Do you want to get…" What did she like? "…coffee… tomorrow after school? There's this new kissaten…"

"Yes…" Pause. "Um… thank you so much for… asking me." Miho's face radiated a light pink color.

"Okay." Kaiba grabbed his suitcase.

"Where are you going?" Miho asked.

"Work. …See ya." And Kaiba left, just as the bell rang.

* * *

Yugi's angelic orbs were like the mournful eyes of a dog that had been denied a treat. Yami chortled. 

"Stop thinking about her, aibou, and you'll feel a lot better."

"Easy for you to say," Yugi muttered bitterly. He rolled over on his bed and sighed.

"I told you to stop it, aibou."

"I can't."

"Want to play Monopoly?" Yami suggested.

"I can't."

"Why not."

"I'm too busy thinking."

Yami let out a loud sigh. "You're hopeless," he declared. "So, we're all ready for our presentation on Egypt, right? When do we have to present it?"

"Next Thursday."

"Good." Yami smiled to himself. "Hey aibou…"

"Yeah?"

"Is anything wrong? I mean besides the fact that we're home."

Yugi snorted derisively. "You're so stupid."

"Just asking." Yami set a trinket up on Yugi's dresser. "Here, you can have this. I always thought you'd like it, anyway. In fact that's probably what made it so irresistible to me in the first place." Yami stepped away, and amused smile on his face. "Who knows? Maybe I subconsciously knew that you were going to need it to cheer you up."

"Eh?" Yugi sat up. "What is it?"

"See for yourself."

Yugi swung his legs over the side of his bed, where he had been vegging every since he got home. He stretched his legs by sliding them across the floor while he stayed seated, his heel touching the ground. When he heard a tiny crickling sound he was satisfied, and stood up to go regard his new gift. He gasped when he saw it. "Oh, wow… Yami, thanks!"

Yami smiled, reaching over and ruffling Yugi's hair. "No problem, aibou."

* * *

Bakura and Otagawa were walking to Duke's. Otagawa was rambling on an on about this cool new game he had seen sold at the Black Crown, and so they were on their way to pick one up. Well, they were, until their way became blocked. 

"You!" Tea poked Bakura's nose. "I want to talk with you."

"Eh?" Bakura back away. "Don't touch my nose."

Otagawa just shrugged. "It's not problem, Bakura. I'll just meet you there."

"'Kay." Bakura gaped at Tea. What on Earth did she want to talk to _him _about!

_Please don't say she likes me, please don't say she likes me, please don't say she likes me, _Bakura prayed.

Tea gave him a dirty look. "Listen, you have to stop bothering Miho, okay? She really doesn't like you, but she likes to argue a lot, and if you don't stop fighting, she won't stop fighting. You understand?"

Bakura stood up fully. He was actually an inch short than Tea, but he would _never _have to look up at anyone to speak to them… except for the only one he respected. He wasn't here, though, so…

"You keep your rose-colored perspective out of my way, you hear!" Bakura hadn't meant to scream, but… "And get out of my way!"

Bakura shoved Tea to the side and stormed past her.

Marik stood on one side of the street, running his finger up and down the blade of his Millennium Rod. To anyone who has never acquainted themselves with Yu-Gi-Oh, that sentence sounded very… odd. Anyway, he was wondering just what Tea Gardner's problem was with Yami Bakura.

"Oh Mimoto-kun," he snickered softly, "what on Earth is your problem? Did you get diabetes again? …Wait, can you get that more than once? Hm… Eh, whatever. I'm sure it's not important."

He nearly dropped his hamburger. It was fortunate that he _didn't, _because he had slopped a motherload of ketchup onto it and he was wearing his favorite lavender shirt. Say what you want about the color lavender, but a word of advice: _Don't _say it around Marik.

"It looks like Bakura's actually making friends," Marik snickered. "In that case, he's got to be weak in this state… maybe I should challenge him to a duel in the Shadow Realm! …Or maybe I should go and buy more ice cream. Hm… can I take a lifeline?" Marik grabbed a young man off of the street and starting shaking him violently. "YOU! Should I banish Bakura to eternal darnation or should I go buy ice cream!" Marik demanded. The man's eyes looked like swirls as he told Marik to go buy ice cream. Marik dropped him carelessly to the sidewalk. "Hm, okay!"

Laughing Maniac Walking…

Okay! I just wanted to make sure y'all know this: The summary says _MihoBakura, _and _MihoBakura _this shall definitely be. Don't you worry. But this will make for an interesting read… After all, what could Bakura possibly have that isn't already possessed by rich, handsome (well, I don't think so, but I know others do, for me it depends on what he's doing), famous Seto Kaiba? Huh? What? You will see...


	17. Next Day, After School

Akio the Dragon Master- (pats you on the head) Do not be ashamed, grasshopper. Everybody has a liking for the word "coolness"… It's just so full of awesomeness and alluringness that I want to hug it. - I'm not making any sense.

DarkAngel4u – Me dragging stuff out basically means I'm waiting for fresh ideas… Summer's coming soon, though, so I'm sure plenty of stuff will pop up in this wacky, strange device I call my "head".

Today was a half-day. This meant, basically, that either the principal wanted to go golfing, or there was a teacher conference during the last half of their regular school hours. They were all to go home right after lunch. …Well, except for Kaiba and Miho, that is.

For all of his thoughts about setting things right with Miho, Bakura just couldn't help but play a few more… _harmless… _pranks.

_Pfffffffffffffffff._

Miho glared at him angrily. Bakura burst out laughing.

"Oh! Oh my gosh! H-ha ha ha ha ha! I almost didn't do that, but I went for it, and it was sooooo worth it! H-ha ha ha ha ha!" Bakura fell out of his seat and onto the floor, laughing. A few other scoundrels in the lunchroom were laughing at her, too, but Miho just scowled at them and they shut up, figuring she had PMS.

Miho didn't care. The bell had rung, anyway, and it was at the end of the day. The only person that had heard the sound was Kaiba…

Miho blushed and gathered up her things. Like most of the other students, she had brought her backpack with her into the cafeteria. Bakura had tried to dump sour milk on it. It was a brand new backpack, too, that her dad had actually bought her in Paris. It wasn't like she was rich or anything, it was just that her dad had won one of those "free vacation" things that you enter by slipping a tiny slip of paper into a tiny box, where the paper can easily slip out accidentally, in a gas station or Baskin Robbins.

"So, Yugi," Tea said, smiling at him, "is Yami able to hang out after school today?"

Yugi wrinkled his nose in disapproval of Tea's forwardness, a gesture which she replied to by making her smile larger and more fake-looking. He hated it when she openly used him to get to Yami. He had come to visit her again at lunch like he had promised, and Miho had spouted off about how much Tea had talked about Yami while she was gone. Once, Yugi had even stopped her, demanding, "Why would I care about that? I'm not Yami; I'm not flattered; and I'm not impressed." Miho had basically shut up after that, except to scream at Bakura and talk to Yugi about meaningless things like the weather.

Yes, they actually talked about the weather.

Yugi shook his head, glad to be able to do so. "No, Yami's grounded, he he." Yugi couldn't help adding another snicker at the end of his sentence. Tea looked at him with rounded eyes.

"Grounded? What for?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you…" Now it was Tea's turn to glance disapprovingly at Yugi. The two had really grown farther apart ever since Yami agreed to date Tea, even before then. It was mostly because Yugi didn't like being snubbed, and therefore had yelled at Tea a couple of times for being rude. Tea apparently became miffed because she didn't like Yugi sticking up for himself like that. The two were still very close friends though, just no as much as they had been. It had all started just before Yugi had left for Egypt.

Besides, Tea _really _didn't want to hear why Yami had been grounded. And, in all honesty, Yugi couldn't say it without laughing.

Tea, Yugi and Miho, accompanied by a silent Joey and Tristan, who were trying to avoid causing an argument between Yugi and Tea, (not that they fought that often; they just didn't want anything to ruin Yugi's homecoming), shuffled into the hallways along with the rest of the student body. The group was attracting a bit more attention than they were wont to receive, particularly because of Little Yugi's apparel. Since he wasn't technically "in school," and was just a guest, Yugi had come to school dressed in something other than his school uniform. This gave Joey and Tristan the idea that he wanted extra special attention from the girls. Yugi had come wearing a green sweater, which was understandable because the wind was vicious outside; however, since there was no wind inside the school, Yugi had complained about being hot until Tristan pointed out that he should take his sweat off. (Really, it had been quite cute; Yugi's eyes had lit up and he'd sported such a naïve smile that it became apparent that he seriously hadn't thought of that option himself.) So Yugi had taken his sweater off—an act which most girls in the cafeteria seemed to find _fascinated. _Whole conversations stopped to see Yugi take off his sweater. Tea had gotten flustered, and had yelled at the others that they were being ridiculous and that Yugi wasn't that hot. Yugi had fallen over onto the floor in an anime faint, and had hit his head on a chair leg. This nearly made him cry, however, he realized that if others saw him crying people would think he was crying because he was upset with Tea. Sure, he was upset with her, but he was above her petty jealousies.

Underneath his sweater, Yugi was wearing his black muscle shirt and dark blue pants along with a black belt. The Millennium Puzzle dangled around neck, catching the light and glaring it off of its lubricious surface. But all of this paled in comparison with Yugi's smile. Yugi was positively beaming at Joey and Tristan; he was thrilled to be back home to his buds, homeys, pals, whatever; _his group_. They were the people he liked being with. Now, if only _she _were a part of this group. Joey and Tristan also got the feeling that, as Yugi spouted on and on about visiting the Pyramids and some jokes he and his new friend had played on Yami, Joey and Tristan got the feeling that there was something more that he wanted to tell them that Tea was preventing him from saying.

"Yugi," Tea said finally, "I'm sorry."

Yugi blinked at her cutely, owlishly. "Sorry for what, Tea?"

Tea's ears burned. "Um… for asking you about Yami so much… and for saying bad things about you to those girls…"

"What girls?"

Tea sweat dropped. "You didn't see the girls?"

"When?"

"She means when the sweater was on your head," Joey pointed out, relaxing a whole lot. He hated it when Tea and Yugi fought; it made him think that maybe Yugi would start fighting with _him, _next. He didn't know how much Yugi looked up to and wanted to be him. Besides, as Yugi smiled at Joey that way, it made Joey realize that Yugi had, on his travels, found a solution that could resolve any fights he had with Tea about Yami, ever.

"Oh," Yugi said dumbly. "I see. But Tea, how would I have been able to see anything with the sweater on my head?"

Tristan pulled his jacket up over his head, and pulled his arms up through it halfway. He flapped his limbs. "Sweater-man!" he declared. Tea, Joey, and Yugi all laughed.

"Hey, where's Miho?" Yugi asked suddenly. "Did she just leave? That's so mean."

"She wends shamelessly," Tristan said with a cheeky grin, as he pulled Joey back. Yugi noticed this but didn't say anything.

"Idiots," he murmured.

"Hm?" Tea, well, _hmed._

"I said I'm sorry for arguing with you lately Tea." Yugi sighed. "I really felt like such a bad friend when Yami and Yugi left for Egypt… and what we fought over was so stupid…"

"Yeah," Tea agreed. "It was stupid. But I'm the one who should be apologizing. I've been a _horrible _friend to you, especially when you consider that I've known you longer than most of the others in our friendship circle. What kind of precedent am I setting?"

Yugi sniggered. "Yes, Tea: You are everybody's role model!" Yugi couldn't help laughing at this.

Tea smiled, taking the jape in good tact, while looking around. "Sure… whatever you say…"

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, that's alright. I guess I have been pretty rude to you, favoring Yami over you and all."

Yugi sweat dropped. "But you're… you're dating him! You're _supposed _to favor him!"

Tea laughed weakly. "Yeah, I guess so, but… I don't know…" Tea paused for a bit, and then added quietly, "we've both been really mean to each other, don't you think?"

"We must have, because we've even scared Tristan and Joey off," Yugi noted light-heartedly.

Tea laughed again. "So we're cool?"

"Yeah, we're 'cool,' or however you say." Yugi scrunched up his face. "Hey Tea?"

"Yeah?"

"Uhm, this may sound stupid, but… what were we fighting about?"

Tea sweat dropped. "I don't know."

"Ah. Gotcha."

"So what is Yami grounded for?" Tea asked. Yugi smiled shyly.

"Well… he he he… it's too funny. You'll have to ask him yourself. The way he explains it is _sooo _hilarious…" Yugi chuckled a bit in remembrance, just to prove his point, "and I'm not sure he wants me telling you anyway."

"Please tell me?"

Tea pleaded, bringing out the puppy eyes and clasping her hands together. It wasn't really all that cute to other people, but Yugi _had _had a crush on her for a number of years, so he thought it was, sort of. The petite dueling champion sighed in defeat. "Okay…"

"Well?"

Yugi licked his dry lips before saying, a bit too loudly:

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"He told somebody's mom she was hot," Yugi explained. Tea's eyes bugged out. "Funny, isn't it?"


	18. After School II: Aaliyah, Coffee, Cheerl...

Akio the Dragon Master- Well, this is a teensy spoiler, but you see, Yami did this to somebody's _married _mother, to the mother's face. While the daughter was present. And while Yugi's mother was standing next to him. And Yami's eyes were sparkling. You know, like a shoujo-flirt. Odd, to say the least.

Inside the Motou household, Yami was very content. Yugi had made up with Tea like they had planned. Yami smirked to himself. His friends had seemed downright shocked by his smaller half's hyper behavior; little did they know Yugi had lived off of sugar and kisses in Egypt. And koshari. Mm, koshari… A/N: Koshari is like a mixture of vegetables, and sometimes pasta. It's really popular in Egypt, and according to what Kazuki says, it's Malik's favorite food. Therefore, it's safe to assume that it's vegetarian food.

It was a bit later when Yugi came home, flanked by his two best friends in the world, Tristan and Joey. Tristan and Joey had finally gotten into their merry routine of duncery, and were acting like their normal selves again, juggling broccoli and singing 'Love Shack'. Tea came in behind them, her eyes combing the room over. Yami started on his way upstairs, since he was grounded, but Yugi stopped him.

"Hey, did Aaliyah call?" Yugi asked.

"Nope!" Yami said, before charging up the stairs. If Tea talked to him, she'd never stop chatting, and then he'd get in trouble with Yugi's mom… and _her ladle. _

_The ladle. _Gods, how he never wanted to hear that word again. In fact, sometimes in private, Yugi and he would use the word _ladle _as a substitute for _bad thing, zombie, _or _Michael Jackson. _Simultaneously, as in 'Wouldn't it be a ladle if ladle became a ladle?'

"Who's Aaliyah?" Joey asked, sounding confused. Yami stopped, and slowly tiptoed back downstairs; getting in trouble with _the ladle _was a small price to pay for seeing the look on his friends' faces.

"My girlfriend," Yugi said simply.

Yami smirked, peeking around the corner. And there it was. All three of them looked like their jaws were made of elastic, the way they were stretching to the ground. Then, Tristan shut his mouth and started twitching rather irrationally. It seemed everybody had better luck with girls that he did.

"Gee," Yami murmured, "I wonder why Tristan…"

"Grandpa!" Yugi cried out. "I'm home!"

The stout figure appeared almost at once. "Welcome back!" he called, waving to his friends as if he was a video game character. Yami snorted. Solomon looked at him warningly.

"She's not home, yet, Yami, she went to go and buy some groceries. But she will be soon…"

"Alright, I'll go up to my room just in case." Yami bowed respectfully before heading up the stairs.

"You have a girlfriend, Yugi?" Joey asked again. Yugi sweat dropped.

"No, I lied."

"Oh, okay then."

"Gu---Grr, Joey you stupid!" Yugi growled at him. "I was joking!"

"About having a girlfriend?" Joey asked stupidly.

"NO! About not having one!"

"What's she look like?"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "I can show you a picture…"

"Never mind that!" Solomon interrupted, waving his hands around in the air. "No loitering in the game shop, Yugi! You know that! Now, Joey, Tea, Tristan," he looked at each of them in turn, "buy something or you'll find yourselves kicked out."

The four grumbled and left the shop. "Sorry, guys," Yugi apologized, "I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to show you Aaliyah's picture."

"Yeah," Tristan joked, "if this 'Aaliyah' exists!"

Yugi snapped at him something that shouldn't have been said. His grandpa then grounded him, and sent the others away.

"It was for a good cause, Yami!" he argued as he stormed up the stairs. Yami just laughed at him.

Miho's cheeks were extraordinarily rosey. Holding a frothy, frozen coffee, the blue-haired girl was shyer than she had been all day. Kaiba was blowing gently on his coffee cup.

The walls of the coffee shop, called _Genki wo Kudaseru, _were decorated with quaint, floral wallpaper. The smell of brewing coffee tickled their noses. Both of them were unnecessarily quiet.

"So… um…" Miho frowned. "I have no idea what to say."

Kaiba nodded. "Don't you hate situations like that?"

"Yeah," Miho admitted. She took a sip of her drink.

"Are you taking the finals next week?" Kaiba asked.

"Don't we have to?"

"Some people got exempt."

"Were you?" she asked. Kaiba nodded.

"I'm taking it anyway, though, because it'll give me an even better grade."

"Cool."

"Yeah… I guess so."

Miho blushed. This was so awkward… but she was still enjoying it. She had nothing to say… and for once, she was enjoying the silence.

_KEEEEEEEEERAAAASH!_

Miho and Seto's eyes enlarged to about a thousand times their normal size, usurping their entire bodies. Broken glass shards were everywhere, littering the wood-paneled floor. The sunlight flew in through the door-sized hole in the window, causing the shards to sparkle and blind small children.

Standing anti-heroically in the wake of the parting dust was a woman.

She had a frizzy mop of perpetually curly orange-red hair, and was about the same height as Kaiba himself.

In her left hand, balanced against her hip, was a ladle.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR CLOSING DOWN THE CHIROPRACTIC OFFICE!" she screamed. Seto's eyes swiveled towards the counter, where the skinny manager and his equally pencil-thin granddaughter were having heart attacks.

Now, you see, the problem with this woman was that her favorite Chiropractic Office had used to be situated _right here, _where Genki wo Kudaseru now stands. In the future, I must make sure not to jump to tense to tense like this.

As suddenly as she had shown up, the woman disappeared. In her place where two well-known, unloved characters.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"Wrong anime," a man pointed out curtly. Meowth hissed and scratched him across the face.

…Ok, so it wasn't really the two incompetent thieves and their obnoxious talking Pok'emon. Instead, it was really just three Cosplayers. But they leapt in, grabbed Kaiba's coffee, and giggled. 'James' slapped 'Jesse's' butt and ran off with the two fellow cosplayers close behind.

Miho and Kaiba just gaped after them.

Kaiba rolled up his sleeves. "Oh no they did not," he murmured heatedly to himself. "Those costumed buggers did _not _just steal my coffee."

"I think they just did," Miho sniggered. Suddenly Kaiba's cell phone went off. _How We Do _blasted from it. Miho's eyes nearly bugged out.

"This is Kaiba," Seto said after he had flicked open the phone with practiced ease. Suddenly turning an embarrassed shade of rouge, he turned to Miho and bowed in apology. 'I have to go,' he mouthed. 'See ya.'

Miho sweat dropped. _Caffeine addict, _she thought distastefully. "Sure, Kaiba, go right on ahead."

"Thank you." Kaiba walked off.

Miho sighed. "Ah, well. I knew it was too good to be true."

Kaiba hated walking out on Miho like that, but he really did have a meeting to go to. Since Mokuba's school didn't have a half-day, he figured he would go hang out there until his younger brother's limo came to pick him up and take him to work. Besides, then he could embarrass Mokuba by being there.

He found Mokuba watching cheerleaders.

"o.O Mokuba?"

Mokuba turned. "Hi Seto!" He waved to his big brother, even though he was a total of five feet away from him. "What brings you here?"

"Those bozos broke our mainstream computer again, Mokuba," Kaiba told him, sighing sadly. "I have to get there right away."

"Sucks."

"Don't use that kind of language, Mokuba."

"Sorry, Seto."

"So did you ask her out?" Mokuba asked. Seto was searching through his pockets for his Palm Pilot.

"Ask who out?" he asked absent-mindedly.

"That girl. The one that likes you."

"Oh… yeah. I just came from the coffee shop. I was over there with her."

Mokuba shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Does she work there?"

"No…"

"So you asked her out?"

Seto specifically turned his head away, acting as if he was looking towards the street impatiently. "Yes."

" Aw, so cute," said Mokuba. "Hey Seto!"

"Yeah?" Seto turned his head around. Mokuba smirked when he saw that his big brother was still blushing.

"You see that girl over there?" Mokuba pointed at one of the cheerleaders.

"…Yes…"

"That one's my girlfriend." Mokuba beamed.

"Oh. Well when did you become all high and mighty? And who said you could have a girlfriend?" Seto reached over to ruffle Mokuba's hair; he hated that, and it would embarrass him to have messy hair in case his girlfriend came over. In his owns subtle way, it was Seto's way at a pointless revenge.

"Well, you didn't say that I _couldn't _have a girlfriend…" Mokuba said, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the ground, and then hopping back to narrowly avoid Seto's hand.

"Good point."

The girl that Mokuba had pointed out stopped for a moment. Turning to see Mokuba, she beamed and waved. Mokuba waved back. Seto rolled his eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me, Seto. You're not accustomed to it. They might fall out!"

Seto rolled his eyes again. "Hey, there's the limo."

"Why, yes, big brother, it _is! _I am so glad that you know you're cars. Now, can you tell me which one is the BMW again?"

Seto rolled his eyes a third time. Mokuba had been teasing him a lot lately, and even though Seto Kaiba could not stand to be teased, he put up with it for the sake of being a good role model to Mokuba.

Mokuba waved to his girlfriend once more before starting off in the direction of the limo.

_I LIKE the end of this chapter. It makes Seto seem like a total loser, huh? But, if you like Seto, don't worry… The whole story won't be like this… :)_

_Now, press that purple button! C'mon! Review! It won't take long, and it will mean the world to me. _


	19. Next Day, Before School

Leona Saclat- Thanks for reviewing! Mokuba has a girlfriend because his girlfriend is based after somebody I know who wanted to have a small role in my fic. I'll try to read your stories soon. I'm going away to camp tomorrow, for three weeks. So, I'm pressed for time.

Tea could hardly believe her bad luck when the next day she arrived at the Kame Game Shop in the morning to find Grandpa Motou outside, sweeping. He looked at her and gave her a large, letcherous smile. Tea shuddered. The old man was positively beaming in her presence.

"I hate to disappoint you, Tea," he said, before she had even opened her mouth, "but Yami and Yugi have both caught the flu, and, coupling that with their jet lag, you could say that they're out like lights." Solomon brushed a coarse, gray bang out of his face. "So they're not coming to school today. Or tomorrow, probably. Yugi usually gets over the flu very quickly, but what with Yami being there also, and Yugi's mom being overprotective, she'll probably keep him here one more day to make sure he doesn't relapse." He grinned at her. "Would you like a glass of water?"

_Oh sure, old man, I'd just LOVE to go into your house and spend some time idly chatting with you. No thanks._

Tea graced him with a fluttering smile, one that appeared and disappeared as fast as a butterfly could flap its wings. "No thank you, Mr. Motou. But thank you for offering." She gave him a small bow before walking off, making it a point not to say anything further. That stupid, no-good letcher. How on Earth could he be related to her best friend, Yugi?

…Ok, so there were so many similarities…

Tea sighed, placing the back of her hand against her cheek, as she reached the bus stop. All the students took the city bus to the high school. It was just starting to rain lightly.

"Stupid clouds tryin' to ruin my sunshine…"

The bus roared up, and slowed to a stop, its breaks squeaking atrociously. All of the congregators at the stop placed their hands over their ears.

"MY HEARING!" one girl yelled.

Another boy yelled, "MY SPLEEN!"

That boy's best friend sweat dropped at him. "Baka yo," he mocked, stepping onto the bus, who had opened its doors like an angel spreading its wings, offering a moving shelter for those who didn't want to be caught in the rain.

Tea stepped doggedly onto the bus, already tired. She had expectedly Yami at her side today. Already rumors were spreading that Yugi was still in love with her, yadda yadda yadda… Sigh. Rumors about Yugi spread super-fast. And the worst part was, people tended to believe them until Yugi was actually around dispelling them.

It sucked. -.-'

Today, however, some of the girls that usually gossiped starting to talk to her on the bus. One of them, Bethany, had this giant crush on Yami, so Tea deduced that they were talking to her to get some new dirt on Yamikins.

They were in the middle of a conversation when Tea's phone went off. "Oh, can you excuse me for a moment?" She smiled vacuously at them. They giggled, as per usual, and nodded their heads.

"Slut," one of them murmured loudly as soon as her back was turned. Tea shot her a look over her shoulder.

"Who?" she asked, smiling pleasantly… baring her teeth just a little bit.

"Oh, uh—nothing. We were joking. I was calling Bethany a slut," said Monica.

"Oh. Ok then."

Tea turned back around, and removed her phone from her fanny pack, which was slung around her waist, resting on her hip. After the ordeal in Oricalcos, she had decided that it was worth looking ridiculous and wearing one, since it was hard to hold onto a purse if she was rushing around watching duels all the time!

Flipping her phone open and pressing it against her ear, she said, "Hello?" …What was she supposed to say? Seven days? There was a giggle as one of the three girls swiped at her fanny back. Tea sidestepped her and gave her a suspicious looking glare.

_I know that it's you, little bitch… _Tea's thoughts surprised even herself. "Uhm, hello?"

"Valley girl," Monica giggled. Tea turned around and glared at her outright.

"Shut up!" Tea slapped her across the face. A small portion of the bus became silent as they turned to stare at her.

Monica faked crocodile tears. "You… You're going to pay for that, slut!"

Tea exploded in her face. "WHY AM I A SLUT!"

"Hello?" crackled a voice from the phone. Bethany's eyes enlarged. She swiped at Tea's phone.

"Give me back my phone!" Tea screamed. Bethany ignored her, bringing it to her ear.

"Ryou?" she giggled.

"-.-' Hello, Bethany," replied the Brit drily. "Can you give the phone back to Tea, now? My… sister has something that she wants sorely to say to her."

"Oh! Of course!" Just when one of the nicer guys around was about to force Bethany to return Tea's phone, she gave it back herself.

"…Ryou?" Tea said tentatively.

"Hi Tea."

"Ryou! Omigosh, what happened? Why are you calling me?" Tea's face just entirely dropped. It was devoid of anger, and was replaced with a calmed fear.

"Nothing's wrong, Tea. I just thought I'd let you be the first to know that I'm coming home soon, since you're the only person who's phone number I remember. Is Bakura around? Oh, and by the way, I told Bethany that Amane needed to talk to you, so just do whatever you would do if you were talking to her."

"…I've never met her…"

"Well don't let them know that!"

"How early is it there?"

There was a pause. Then a creaking noise. "Uh, it's pretty early…" Tea could sense Ryou sweat dropping over the phone. "Either that, or it's pretty late. Is Yugi there?"

Tea felt a small pang in her heart. Yugi was the person that Ryou always confided in; the two felt that, since they both owned Millennium Items that housed spirits inside of them, that they could relate to each other better than they could with others. When it came to being a confident, Tea felt left out; Serenity confided in Tristan or Joey; Tristan confided in Joey; Ryou and Joey confided in Yugi; and Yugi confided in Yami. Yugi did confide in him, too, but sometimes Tea got the feeling that whenever Yugi told her _anything, _he was only giving her the abridged version. Maybe, a couple of hundred pages abridged. Like a book that was cut and slashed and shortened and edited until it was of little value. Tea wondered if her friends appreciated her.

"Uhm, no… he's sick. So is Yami."

"Oh. Joey?"

"No."

"Tristan?"

"Nuh-uh." Tea could never figure out why Tristan and Ryou got along so well together; they had totally different lifestyles.

Tristan lived in an apartment with his mom and his dad. Sometimes his sister dropped in with her bouncing baby hustler, Johji, age 2 or so. Tea instinctively rubbed her shoulder, remembering how heavy that baby had been, and how letcherous he had been. Ugh.

Ryou, meanwhile, had lived alone until quite recently, when Bakura and Yami received their own bodies in a freak magic act. His sister was… well..

"Ryou, I thought your sister was…"

"She is. I'm just saying, pretend she's, well, you know, still living."

"Okay."

Ryou's mom, Tea didn't know about, and Ryou's father was always traveling and such, being an archaeologist much too in love with his work.

"So… is Duke there?"

Duke?

"Duke? Uhh…" Tea's looked around. There was Duke, talking to some guys, probably talking about how he had broken another heart. Tea rolled her eyes. She really didn't want to give the phone to him. She wanted to keep this conversation to herself, selfish as it sounded; she felt that, as a friend, she had neglected Ryou as a whole, and when he came home that was all going to change, she had promised herself.

"Uhm, no, Duke's not around."

"He's right there!"

"Shut up Monica! That's not him."

"Yes it is, Bethany!"

"Hmph."

"…" Tea started to walk to a different part of the bus. "Anyway, how's it going?"

"Pretty good…" More creaking noises. "Uh… geez, out of milk again. Mom never remembers…"

So his mom _was _alive. "How come you're coming back so early? I thought you weren't due to come back for a couple of weeks."

"Uh, well… I kinda got dumped."

Tea nearly dropped the phone right then. "Pardon?" she said, maybe a bit too eagerly sounding. The girls behind her exploded into fits of giddy, high-pitched laughter. _Preps, _she thought angrily. _Spreading their hot air._

"Yeah… my girlfriend was kind of disturbed by my mom. Oh, that's the thing! I needed to tell Bakura that my mom is going to be living with me now for awhile. My family is officially moving to Japan. My mom's tired of England and all of that stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Uh, I dunno, it just sounded cool to say. Anyway, please don't say anything to Bakura. Do you mind if I call you later? He will be at school today, right? He hasn't been skipping? He called me the other day, but… eh… one of us dropped the phone. Forget which of us did, but, yeah… Pretty silly, huh?"

Tea was smiling. "Oh… That stinks. I hate it when I drop my phone. So, you're concerned about Bakura being around your mom, huh?"

"Well, he actually likes my family well enough… before Amane's accident, he was absolutely nuts about her. He kept raving about how she was a lot like this cousin he used to have or something, before she got sold to some wandering sheik for two emeralds."

Tea sweat dropped. "Wow… I didn't know Bakura had a family."

"Maybe he'll tell you about them one day," Ryou said cheerfully. "Amane's death hit Bakura almost half as much as it hit me."

"Were you close?"

"Huh… oh. Oh yeah!" Tea was wondering whether Ryou was doing that cute, space-out blinking thing, where he brought himself back down to Earth. "Sorry, Tea, I'm kind of spaced." Bingo. "I can barely hear you… are you on the bus?"

"It is that time of day, you know."

"…"

"…Ryou?"

"…Did you say time of _day, _or time of _month? _Because, you know," Ryou sounded slightly panicked, "if it was the latter than I'm really sorry for bugging you—"

"Time of DAY!" Tea snorted. It seemed somebody had struck fear into the heart of little Ryou. "So, I guess you're coming home is really important, huh? Bakura will be thrilled. He hasn't really said it, but everybody can tell that he really misses you. N act, he made this friend—"

"Bakura made a _friend!" _There was a loud thumping noise. Tea giggled, knowing that Ryou had run into something.

"Maybe you should get some sleep, Ryou?"

"Aw, it's only like… what… 2 in the morning? Uhm… Yeah. 2:14." Tea expected Ryou to ask her what time it was, but he didn't. He knew his time zones. "So, uh… I was wondering…"

"Yeah?"

"I was going to ask Yugi this, but do you think I should tell Bakura that my mom is moving in with us when I get there or over the phone?"

"How does he usually react when you tell him things that have a major effect on him?" Tea's professional-sounding response surprised herself.

"Uhm… Well, he's usually—hey, milk! Hold on." Tea heard Ryou set the phone down, her a fridge slam, and heard a loud pouring sound. "Okay. Back. He usually gets really mad. If somebody he hates is around, he makes an even bigger show of being mad to show off."

"Well, this new guy has him acting like a normal human being… a rebellious, juvenile delinquent, if-you-don't-stop-staring-at-me-then-I'll-slice-you-open glare of death bearing human being."

"…Pardon, could you repeat that?"

"When are you coming home?" Tea didn't bother repeating it, since it was too loud where she was standing. She was nearing Sozoji's area. That stupid upperclassmen always had his stereo pumping so loud that the only people that could stand to be around there were the deaf oldies who hopped from bus to bus, getting off to window-shop for an adorable sweater to give to their grandchildren for their bar mitzvah. O.o; Grandparents were weird.

"…Tomorrow."

Tea dropped her phone. She picked it up and quickly dialed back. "Hello?" she said breathlessly.

"Tea?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I dropped my phone. Did you say that you were coming back _tomorrow? _Are you sure you don't want to tell Bakura?"

" Nah, it'll be fun to spring it on him. I'm not bringing my mom home tomorrow, I'm just bringing some of my mom's stuff. I have to go back this Saturday and bring her back with me."

"Why not just let her fly herself?"

"She's… uhm… not really in fine fettle, Tea."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah."

There was silence for a bit.

"…So how have you been?" Ryou asked cheerfully. Tea had to cover the mouthpiece so he couldn't hear her giggle. His accent seemed to be giggle-inducing.

"I'm fine…"


	20. During School: The Force of Gravity

Camp was fun, but now I'm BACK! WOOHOO!

Leona Saclat- I used the glorious Internet to determine the times. If it's wrong, it's my own fault, and you may spank me if you wish (but you probably won't want to!) Bakura DOES have a little sister, in fact. She is mentioned in the manga. Also mentioned in the manga is that fact that she dies. Ryou and her were very close… her name is Amane.

Akio the Dragon Master- Arigatou Akio-chan:) :) I missed you at camp a lot. We must plot for you to come with me next year… . 

"…And so, since Newton was the first to 'define' gravity, we measure gravity in newtons. The force of gravity on Earth is nine-point-eight newtons. Yes Bakura?"

The weary class lifted their heads to hear what Bakura had to say. Since he rarely contributed to the class, unless he had taken a Benadryl or was trying to kill Seto Kaiba. Mimochi Bakura raising his hand was a surprise that muffled that monotony of their usual morning Physics lesson.

"Why?"

Ms. Jono blinked. "Why what?"

"Why didn't they just label the force of gravity as one newton?"

"Um… dunno."

"Why don't you know? Aren't you a teacher?"

Ms. Jono sighed exasperatedly. "_Bakura…"_

"Sorry, sorry." Bakura settled down. This caused him to get more stares than ever. He glared evilly at those around him. "What the #&#$ are you looking at?" he yelled. Three classrooms down, a teacher dropped his test tube during a chemistry demonstration and burned a hole in his foot.

"Bakura, please don't yell anymore and I won't give you detention," Ms. Jono said wearily. Her best friend had broken up with her boyfriend, and had been leaning on her for a lot of support. This meant staying up late eating ice cream. Now, even an evil teacher like Ms. Jono loved her ice cream, but three nights in a row was enough of that.

"Thank you ma'am."

Miho glanced at Bakura oddly.

"_This has to stop," he hissed. "Before this week is over… we are going to… work this out."_

Was this a part of "working it out"? Did Bakura really want to be her friend? Well, Miho was indignant. She wasn't going to make this easy… She turned back to her sheet on physics formulas…

…and turned back around again. Bakura was gazing out the window, like most of the class was. Turning his head boredly, he caught sight of her. Instead of turning away, Miho gave him a cool, cold stare. Bakura just waved hello at her.

Miho turned away, wondering why she was blushing. Turning back, she glanced at Bakura hopefully. Maybe he was plotting to throw something at her?

…Hey, he WAS tossing something towards her… Jerk. Wait, no. Miho caught it in her left hand. It wasn't a crumpled up wad of paper; rather, it was a neatly folded sheet of paper. She unfolded it.

_Hi._

Her eyeballs bugged out. She looked back at Bakura, but he was once again regarding the Outside Realm—aka, the world outside the window. Taking out a pen, she wrote back.

_Uh, hi?_

Since there was nobody in-between the two of them (Miho and Bakura were separated by two desks) she leaned back and placed the note on the desk in front of Bakura. He grabbed it and, making it a point to look bored, (especially when he saw Hanasaki look up to see what was going on,) unfolded it.

He gave it back to her a few moments later.

_Has Ryou called anybody you know lately?_

Miho wrote back, _No, why would he? He's probably in England having a grand old time with people that AREN'T us._

When she handed it to him, she glanced at Ms. Jono—her back was to her—and so she turned around and watched Bakura open it. He looked amused. He took out a pen—Miho noticed it had a skull design on it—and wrote on it. It was a weird little pen. The top of it was a translucent skull, and it lit up whenever one wrote with it. _Just perfect for a psycho like him, _she thought.

He gave her back the note.

_Oh, but surely you know the high and mighty Ryou is so lofty and high above us! Besides, he had to take care of his mom._

Miho's curiosity was piqued now. Not only was the thing about Ryou's mom interesting… but Bakura had said "us"… so he was speaking for both of them. That was something that had never happened before. Why was Bakura passing notes with her?

_What's wrong with his mom?_

_She's sick._

_Sick, how?_

_She's really, really, really sick, and Ryou had to go home to take care of her. Ryou's new girlfriend was the daughter of one of the nurses that worked at the place._

Hospital? Why hadn't he written hospital? Was it not a hospital? What was wrong with Ryou's mom?

_Oh. Okay. We better stop passing notes before Ms. Jono sees._

When he read this, Bakura smiled cruelly. Crumpling the paper into a mess, he tossed it at her head. However, she caught it.

"Bakura!" she yelled. Ms. Jono whipped around.

"Detention Bakura," she stated with a business-like cruelty in her tone.

"Yes ma'am."

Bakura flinched. Seto stared. Miho wondered.


	21. Same day: Lunch

Akio the Dragon Master- We MUST hang out this summer! (punches fist in the air, then gets unexpectedly dizzy) After I got home, I slept for 15 hours straight, so I know what you mean. Thanks for pointing out the spelling mistake. I found another—seperated instead of separated. I'll fix 'em. I also spelled curiosity wrong.

Leona Saclat- … Okay.

DarkAngel4u- S'okay. Thanks for reviewing now. I really appreciate all of the feedback I get from people. Thanks for your commenting about Bakura. I guess I really got him in character.

Silver Fantasy- That's why I wrote it. :) People need to pay a lot more attention to her! Really!

"Iiiiiiiiiiit's lunch time!" Joey announced. "My favorite time of the day! Besides dinner and breakfast and snacking, of course. Time to chow down!"

"Be careful Joey!" Tea warned laughingly. "You're going to explode if you eat too much!"

"How on Earth do you manage to stay so skinny?" Tristan teased, poking Joey in the ribs.

The lunch room was alive with the laughter and chatter of the whole school.

Joey looked up at him, his mouth full of lettuce and some kind of dripping meat. "How do _you _stay so skinny, Tristan?" Joey said, except nobody could understand him due to the large amount of food blocking the way of the words.

Miho stared at her food blandly. Seto Kaiba was giving her a look that indicated that he wanted her to come and sit by him. She wanted to, but she had actually walked with Bakura to lunch. It had been strange, talking with Otagawa. The guy was really quite animated. And so when Otagawa stopped at the door of D-hall, Miho stopped too. And when Bakura emerged and Otagawa started walking again, Miho walked too.

…And when Bakura started talking to Otagawa, Miho had talked, too, until it was like a three-way conversation. Including Bakura.

Including Bakura.

"_Ryou promised to bring me home some new CDs," Bakura was telling Otagawa._

"_Will they be ones that will get us in trouble?"_

"_Oh, like Ryou listens to unedited Eminem," Miho teased. "He flinches when he's even near one of those CDs. It's actually really funny."_

_Bakura nodded. "Yeah, it is."_

Now, Bakura was staring at her. Miho had this prickly, unsettling feeling inside her stomach. She was across from Bakura. On his right was Otagawa, who sat next to Joey, who sat next to Hanasaki. On Miho's right was Tea, who sat next to Tristan, who sat next to Duke. So the gang was all there, except for those who weren't there. .

Seto stood up with his tray and came over and sat next to her on her left. Miho scarcely breathed.

"Hi," he said breathlessly. Miho just nodded shyly.

Bakura shifted his gaze—those glassy, glassy eyes!—towards Seto Kaiba.

"I'm still going to kill you," he warned.

"I'm still going to sue you," was the reply.

Joey growled. "Get out of here, Kaiba. You're not welcome here."

"Shut up, mutt. I can sit where I like." As if to prove his point, Seto stabbed at his rubbery, school-bought chicken with a spork and brought it to his lips.

Tea looked at Miho questioningly. Miho shrugged and starting eating her own food.

Bakura stood up and left. His hands were jammed in his pockets as he skulked moodily towards the entrance to the hallway.

"Hey, Bakura!" Otagawa complained. "Come back! They have _cake _today!"

"They have cake every Friday," Bakura muttered in reply.

"Do they? I hadn't noticed." Like a good lackey, Otagawa stood up and followed Bakura.

Miho's head swirled.

The table was kind of quiet, so Seto took it upon himself to start up a conversation. "So, mutt, how have our lessons been for you? I bet it reminds you of when you took 8th grade for the 5th time, huh?"

"I'm not listening to you Kaiba…"

"Then how do you know that I'm talking to you?" Kaiba sneered. Joey was about to fly at him, but Tea held up both her hands imploringly, and Tristan gave Joey a disgusted look, so he sighed unhappily and sunk back into his seat.

Miho rested her hand on Seto's arm and looked at him pleadingly. He nodded. He didn't bother Joey for the rest of the lunch hour. Tea looked at Miho strangely, her eyes going from her friend's hand to the blush on Seto's face. She was absolutely bewildered by the rouge color on the stolid C.E.O.'s face. Maybe it was a trick of the light that made it look red?

_There's no way that they're… _she thought. But then again, stranger things had happened. Like the Pudding Incident. Or the third biannual waffle war.

Tea tapped her friend on the shoulder. "Miho, I need to talk to you." Miho blushed.

As if Miho was in Fate's good graces, the bell rang just then.


	22. Same day: After school

Akio- Or _is _he? I have no idea myself yet. But this chapter, I think, is very cute. So enjoy! No, really, I think you'll really like it. It has Bakura, Miho, Tea, Yugi, and YAMI! (Woo-hoo!) (Insert wink here.) Lol. It also has a reference to one of my favorite metal bands! Woo! Ok, enough spoiling. Read on!

Leona Saclat- Don't worry about Seto for now. And, to tell you the truth, I stayed in _Belgium, _land of waffles, and I never once ate a waffle while I was there.

It was after school, just before Miho and Bakura would have to report for cleaning duty. Tea frowned. Miho, Bakura, Seto… something weird was going on there. She couldn't quite put her finger on it.

A loud ring from her cell phone interrupted her musings. She picked it up.

"Hello?"

Hushed whispers greeted her, like dead leaves being rubbed together. Something chilly ran down her back. Her heart squeezed itself inside.

The line went dead.

It rang again. She picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's me again," laughed a pleasant sounding voice. Tea nearly dropped her phone.

"RYOU?"

Never had she felt such relief!

"…Tea?" Tea picked up the phone again, blushing a little.

"Sorry; dropped the phone. Did you just call me?"

"No, I just got home. My dad and I were—"

"Oh. What is it! How are you! What's wrong!" Tea flipped out. Tristan passed by her, muttering a "hello"; but he gave her an odd look and hurried on.

"Didn't we go through this earlier? I'm fine; I'm sorry for bothering you, but I need to talk to my better half."

"Oh, yeah," Tea said sarcastically, "he sure is better than you, let me tell you… Wait a minute, you called ME? AGAIN? You're wasting my long-distance minutes!"

Tea could practically sense Ryou sweat drop. "You have free long-distance, Tea. You told all of us that when you got your phone. It was all you could talk about for a month."

"Oh. Oh yeah. Here he comes now, hold on."

Tea placed her hand over the mouthpiece. "BAKURA!" she screamed. "GET YOUR LAZY BUM OVER HERE, NOW!"

Bakura, who had been slowly making his way down the hall towards his cleaning duty, (actually, he had been splashing people with water from the water fountain, laughing, and pointing like an evil Yoda high on pot,) looked positively pissed as he made his way over, slouching abhorrently, his eyes red, evil slits, and his lip pulled up into an affronted scowl.

"What do you want, woman?" he shouted in his best Vegeta impression. Tea gawked.

"Uh… Ryou's on the phone for you…" Tea shifted uncomfortably as she awkwardly handed him her phone, mentally citing a little prayer in hopes that it would come out OK.

Bakura pressed the phone up against his ear. "_Yadonushi-sama?_" he breathed.

"- Hi. Got some good news to tell you! I'm coming home!"

"When!" Bakura cried. Tea rolled her eyes.

"Don't sound _too _unhappy, Bakura, you'll give us all depression," she said.

Bakura narrowed his eyes at her. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"Whatever." Tea twirled around and started to pluck a textbook here, notebook there from of her locker. Bakura went back to the phone.

" Soon!" Ryou announced cheerfully, as if this solved everything. A girl smacked into Bakura and he fell on top of the water fountain as somebody bent over to drink from it.

"Ew…" The person wiped their mouth and lumbered off.

Tea couldn't help but notice how Bakura seemed to melt away everything but the phone and himself right then.

"Soon?" Bakura didn't sound hopeful; in fact he sounded pained. If only he had known how soon!

"Yup! I'll probably get dropped off at home just when you get out of school! 'Kura?"

"…What day?"

"Soon day!"

"Ha ha ha," Bakura laughed sarcastically.

"Don't worry about it, Bakura!" Ryou lilted, and added coyly, "I have a surprise for you…"

"…Sh—" Bakura dropped the phone. Tea, who had been talking with a boy in their class, dove and caught it. Random people in the hallway broke out into thunderous applause.

"Thank you, thank you," she said, bowing. "You idiot!" Tea screamed at Bakura. "That's my phone!"

"…Sorry," Bakura said. Tea blinked at him. Bakura had just apologized to her?

Bakura walked off, looking as if he was in a daze. "My other half is coming home soon…" he told one girl. His voice sounded strangely disembodied. She looked at him funny, and then backed away. He headed into the classroom.

Tea brought the phone to her ear. "I think you put him into shock," she said. "So, do you want me to get him again, or did you decide to tell him when you get home?"

"I'll tell him when I get home…"

"Good choice!" She would've said good choice no matter what the choice was. She always wanted to cheer up Ryou. He always seemed so… _alone, _even when he was with them. Of course, this wasn't true, and Ryou had called Tea delusional several times because of her assumptions on the subject, but still… everyone loved to see Ryou smile.

15 minutes later…

"Give it back!"

"No!"

"Give it!"

Miho hated this; she really did. It was so weird, and so creepy. Once again, Bakura and she had been chosen to clean up after school. (Ms. Jono hated her, she could swear!) And once again, Bakura was teasing her. However, this time, it was eerie.

He had her new Ipod and was dangling it over her head while he stood on his desk. Miho was fruitlessly jumping up and trying to grab at it. She could just climb up on his desk and push him over, but she had this bad image in her head of her doing that. Bakura would fall over, grab at her to steady himself, and they'd both end up crashing to the floor on top of each other. What was worse was that this image wouldn't leave her head for anything. God dn Pop-tarts, giving her images….

The horribly creepy part, though, was that he was watching her jump. He wasn't, ya know, watching her jiggle… he was watching her face. As if he was taking down mental notes on how she reacted to different things. She felt like a lab rat.

"Please, give it to me, Bakura! It isn't mine! It's… it's Tristan's!" Although it was a bare-faced lie, her supposition was that it wouldn't hurt to make Bakura feel a little guilty. And, to her surprise, Bakura blanked out for a second.

"Oh." The notorious boy flopped back into his seat and shoved the device into her hands roughly. Miho held back a gasp.

"Here then," Bakura said with blank courtesy. "If it's… not yours…"

Bakura then seemed to close into himself. His eyes became narrow and calculating; his eyebrows nearly met in the middle of his face. His mouth tilted downward until it was the ugliest frown Miho swore she had ever seen on a person. His hands were clasped in front of him, placed nicely on his desk. He was hunched over and for all Miho knew he could be muttering world domination plans to himself.

"Uhm… thank you." She turned.

"So Tristan has the song 'Dip It Low' on his Ipod, then?"

Miho would've ignored this question entirely if Bakura hadn't posed it as he had; he sounded confused, curious, and for all the world surprised. Miho smiled, knowing that Tristan was going to be picked on for weeks.

"I guess so…"

"That says a lot about him, ne?"

Miho could hear the smirk in Bakura's voice. It caused her to turn around. He was smiling—not a deranged, I'm-coming-to-get-you smile, or a smug, I-am-so-much-more-powerful-than-you smile, but a… normal, hey-that's-funny smile, an I'm-am-so-going-to-make-fun-of-him-tomorrow smile. A mischievous Ryou smile. It took Miho's breath away to see Ryou's smile on Bakura's wicked face. His eyes were almost twinkling the ways Ryou's did…

When Bakura started to pick at the wood of his desk, a cold, dreadful feeling seeped back into her in a hurry. She felt like she was watching a madman at work, so quickly she turned and busied herself with moving the desks around so that she could mop the floor. Bakura just hummed a light tune to himself. She thought that this was creepy.

The sunlight that filtered into the room was dusty, making it seem as if they would never be finished with their work. However, soon it was done. Miho looked at Bakura before she left. He was still muttering to himself. He hadn't helped mop up the classroom, but he had helped to move the desks out of the way and put them back, so Miho didn't feel like yelling at him. Besides, at the moment, it would feel like yelling at Ryou.

"Um, goodbye, Bakura…" Bakura nodded towards her, his eyes still kind of… sad. They looked more like Ryou's eyes than ever.

_Inside Bakura's mind…_

"_Now, Bakura, you can't go ruining other people's things! It's not nice!"_

"_Like I give a rat's a—"_

"_And plus, this wasn't even mine! It was my friend's! He's going to be mad…" A seven year old Ryou scooped the broken Game Boy into his hand. "How did you manage to wreck it in two?"_

"_Um… perseverance?"_

"_What's that mean?"_

"_I… hit it a lot," the spirit explained. "And it broke. That's perseverance."_

"_Oh. Doesn't sound very nice…"_

_Outside of Bakura's mind…_

"I am such a dog-gone sap. Ryou better come home so I can slap him a little," Bakura grumbled to himself. He grabbed his backpack and exited the room. He even remembered the turn the lights off. Tea gave him an odd look from her locker. "What are you still doing here, Gardner?" he asked.

"Nothing," she sighed. "So what did Ryou want?"

Tea could've sworn that she saw Bakura's eyes twinkle when he told her, as tartly as he could be, "Ryou told me that he is coming home soon. Have you seen Otagawa?"

"Yeah, he's over there." Tea pointed towards the door, where Otagawa was joking with a nervous-looking Akazaya and a peevish Joey. Obviously he had interrupted one of their bi-daily make-out sessions.

Bakura made his way over towards his friend. Tea gave him one last look before exiting the school. The day was gray and humid; a disgusting day that wriggled under her skin like a flea and itched at her mood. To further this bad mood, she hadn't been able to speak to Miho for the rest of the day. When Miho had come out of the classroom, she had seemed in an awful hurry to get far away from Bakura. Now Tea was even more curious as to the situation that her best friend and Seto Kaiba were in. Were they dating?

If they were, was it possible that she had misjudged Kaiba? Could he actually be a good person?

Miho probably just had bad taste.

Delusional fantasies of what it might be like to have Kaiba as a friend ran through her head until she nearly passed the game shop. "Oh," she said aloud when she realized that she had gone too far. She backtracked until the large letters were right in front of her.

KAME GAME SHOP

Tea jogged up the stairs and went into the upstairs living room without hesitation. A sudden flashback of when Yugi had played Pegasus's tape at the start of Duelist Kingdom overtook her, and she shook her head to clear it of the bad memory.

She heard low music—it sounded like some form of metal-rock—playing, while the boy she had come in search of was laying face-down on the couch, trembling slightly in his sleep.

"Yugi?" she called softly. He didn't respond. "Yugi?"

Angered by her close friend's silence, Tea yelled, _"Yugi Motou, you get down here right now and finish your homework!"_

Yugi sat up as if he had been lit on fire. "But _Mo-om!_" he complained loudly. Tea giggled.

"Your mom's out shopping, Yugi; it's only me," she explained. Yugi blushed.

"Oh," is all he said. Then he slumped back on the couch. Tea rolled her eyes. _Typical lazy Yugi, _she thought to herself. _As always. After all, even HE is a guy. …Maybe. …Mwaahahhahaha. _

"Is this a new CD? Where did you get the money for it?" Tea asked. "Oh, and what band is it?"

"Yes; I didn't pay, it was a gift; and Sonata Arctica."

"Sounds cool!" Tea exclaimed, still trying to process all the information Yugi had just given her.

Yugi smiled a bit. "Yeah."

"Who was it a gift from?" Tea asked, squinting at the stereo as if examining the CD inside. She picked up the CD case and admired it. There was a picture of what seemed to be a half-buried emblem on the case. The colors on it were all grays and dark blues. The last 'A' in 'Sonata' and the first 'A' in 'Arctica' were combined as one giant double eye, which, Tea realized, was what the shape of the half-buried emblem was.

The band, Sonata Arctica, was American metal. Interesting.

"Aaliyah," Yugi said wearily. Tea was barely paying attention.

"Who?"

Yugi continued on, ignoring her question: "You know, you're not supposed to be in here… I'm sick. And so is Yami," Yugi added as an afterthought. Tea was inwardly glad that Yugi always told how he was feeling _before _he explained how the Spirit of the Puzzle was feeling. It reminded Tea that Yugi did think of himself before others, at least sometimes. The brunette was constantly fussing over her friend because she was _sure _that somebody was going to come along and befriend him and then do him some kind of spiritual/mental/emotional/bodily harm. And, in essence, that wasn't far _from _the truth. Yugi had people that didn't like him. Yugi had… a _lot _of people that didn't like him. Duelists, bullies… and bully duelists. Yugi had people that stayed up at night and plotted against him, like Bakura. Yugi was vulnerable and weak. But with his friends, Yugi could stay safe. He gave and his friends gave, like the coexistence of some underwater creatures. And knowing that Yugi, usually selfless, put himself in front of Yami, at least sometimes, let Tea know that he was still sane. She couldn't imagine what it would be like, to have someone formerly royal stuck in your pendant that is able to read your thoughts, and…

"Wait…Who?"

"You know. My girlfriend."

"Oh. I thought you'd made that up," Tea teased. Yugi's eyes narrowed. "Just a joke," she assured him, holding both her hands up in submission. She wasn't sure if he heard her, because he replied:

"And that Yami was going along with it? Yami and I never make the same jokes. We always ruin each other's. We can't seem to keep our japes in sync."

"Oh."

Well, what was she supposed to say to that? She didn't really understand what he was getting at. So it wasn't a joke. So he really had a…

_Yugi has a girlfriend._

Tea dropped the CD case.

_Yugi has a girlfriend! (Squeal!)_

"You have a girlfriend?" Tea asked as calmly as she could, grinning largely at Yugi. Yugi groaned.

"Yes! I do! Now either leave me alone or stop asking that."

"_Run away run away run away!" _the music sang.

Tea looked shocked. Yugi turned a very bright shade of crimson which actually made him look very cute.

"S…Sorry for being rude, Tea," Yugi mumbled. "I guess I'm not feeling myself t'day. …I'm sick, ya know."

"_Run away run away run away!"_

"Don't let it get to you, Tea," said a placating, heroic-sounding voice. Tea rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to sound like a superhero when you're just greeting somebody, Yami," she laughed. Yami struck a pose, pretending to floof out his flowing, super-heroic cape and point at something spectacular in the air. Yugi and Tea both laughed.

"Yugi's just a little down since we left Egypt," Yami explained. "That's why he's acting so _human."_

"Gasp!" Yugi gasped. "Double gasp, in fact! Triple gasp!"

"…Actually, Yugi's been pretty down in the dumps ever since we left _Aaliyah."_

"Stop teasing me!" Yugi whined. Tea winced. She had forgotten how high her friend's voice could get.

"Stop teasing yourself," Yami chortled back. Yugi made more protesting noises.

"That didn't even make _sense!" _the shorter boy cried.

Yami grinned cheekily at Tea. "Would you like something to eat Tea?"

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"Or shouldn't you be heading home, since you're not supposed to be here anyway?" Yami hinted that this was his option of choice by gesturing slightly towards the stairs with his hand. "If Yugi's mother finds out I'm talking to… an OUTSIDER…"

"Gasp!" gasped Yugi.

"…then I'll probably be grounded even longer." Yami grinned and sweat dropped. "And I'd really hate that."

It was like telling someone to go away with an infallible grin on your face. That was what Yami was doing. And Tea, for one, found it insulting.

"Fine!" Tea growled, "You two are such idiots!"

Tea exited the shop muttering unpleasant phrases under her breath. Those two had acted so ungrateful when they found out that she had arrived. Mrs. Motou probably wasn't going to come back until later—

"Oh, hello, Tea. What are you doing here?" Yugi's mother smiled liltingly at Tea. Tea gulped.

"Uh, hi, Mrs. Motou." Was that dynamite in her hand? "How are you doing today?"

Pleasant smile. Gulp. "Oh, I'm fine…"

"Glad to hear it."

Gulp. "Thanks. I… have to be going… he he." More nervous laughter. Tea scratched the back of her head as she walked backwards down the sidewalk. Mrs. Motou gave her a pleasant smile. When she turned away, Tea turned, too, and ran.

"_Run away run away run away!" _Yugi sang inside. Yami hit him with a pillow.


End file.
